LONDON — A former co-chair of the Conservative Party has changed her stance in Britain's referendum to leave the European Union, saying Monday that she's now in the "remain" camp.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a lawyer and member of the House of Lords for Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, complained that xenophobia and lies have drowned out moderate voices in the Brexit campaign.
• Last week, hours before the assassination of Member of Parliament Jo Cox, the United Kingdom Independence Party's leader, Nigel Farage, unveiled a poster titled "Breaking Point," showing a sea of stereotypically Arabic immigrants walking through the European countryside and asserting that the UK must take control of its borders.
• Earlier this month, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a Conservative member of Parliament for the Surrey Heath District southwest of London, warned of the dangers of allowing Turkish citizens to travel in the European Union without visas. The proposal was brought up earlier this year as part of a deal in which the country would take back migrants who had crossed the Aegean Sea to Greece.
"This kind of nudge-nudge, wink-wink xenophobic racist campaign may be politically savvy or politically useful in the short term, but it causes long-term damage to communities," Warsi said on BBC Radio 4's Today program.
She called herself "deeply Euroskeptic," seeking reforms in the European Union's relationship with the United Kingdom. But anything that was optimistic about the "leave" campaign has been stifled, she said.
The development came as members of Parliament gathered in the Palace of Westminster here for a recall of the UK Parliament to pay their respects to the Labour Party's Cox, whose death June 16 in a violent attack led to a three-day pause in the EU battle. Now the Brexit campaign is back in full swing before Thursday's referendum.
So now Warsi, who was the first Muslim woman to be a part of the UK's Cabinet, has come out in favor of "remain." But several in the "leave" camp said they were not aware that she was a supporter.
"Baroness Warsi 'defection' is a typical Number 10 put-up job. She never wanted to leave the EU," Farage said on Twitter.
"When I invited Sayeeda Warsi to join the Leave campaign, she declined. Fair enough, obviously. But how is this a 'defection'?" asked Daniel Hannan, a senior "leave" supporter and Conservative member of the European Parliament.
And from author and prominent Brexit supporter Toby Young: "Was Warsi on our side? Who knew?"
But Warsi said she had spoken for the "leave" campaign within the past five weeks and promoted Brexit in the media four weeks ago.
"I've been making the case for leave long before Vote Leave had even formally been established, campaigning for Brexit last summer, building the foundation of bringing on different communities to make sure that their voice, too, would be heard in this Brexit campaign," she said.
Farage defended his poster, saying he did not invent the picture, that it was a real photo on the front page of newspapers last year. He called leaving a quality-of-life issue that could mean getting a doctor's appointment, buying a house or enrolling your 5-year-old in a local school without being crowded out by immigrants.
To allay economic concerns, Farage said a Britain free of the European Union should offer to continue trading with the EU's remaining members on a tariff-free basis. And he believes that Denmark, the Netherlands or Sweden will have their own referendums soon.
Follow Michael Settle on Twitter: @settle_michael
