Control of EU immigration has been one of the most headline-grabbing arguments in the Brexit debate so far, with Ukip and the Murdoch press pushing for the UK to adopt an Australian-style points system where immigrants are graded on their potential use to the economy before being granted visas.
John Springford believes that one of the benefits of a referendum debate would be that it would allow people to understand the myriad benefits conferred by EU membership, rather than the knee-jerk reactions encouraged by sensationalised newspaper reporting of the subject. “I think it might be cathartic to have a referendum, with people understanding a bit more about what the trade-offs are. So maybe they don’t like immigration and they don’t like rules being imposed from Brussels, but when you speak to people, they don’t really understand what the benefits of these are. The campaign may draw them out and force them to think about that.”