David Cameron was scarcely back in London on Friday night, after the summit in Brussels, when the deal he had laboured so long to achieve was almost forgotten.
When the prime minister spoke outside 10 Downing Street after the first Saturday cabinet meeting since the Falklands War, he hardly mentioned the concessions he had won. Instead, he set out the broader case for remaining in the EU, warning that to leave would be to take a leap into the unknown.
He returned to the theme in a column for the Sun on Sunday, accusing Leave campaigners of promising Utopia without giving any details of how it would be achieved.
“You say: ‘We could be in the Single Market, but outside the EU.’ But no country outside the EU has full access without paying for it, accepting migrants, and losing all say over the rules that affect them – why would we be any different?” he wrote.
By Sunday, all eyes in Westminster were on London mayor Boris Johnson, whose elaborate political striptease over Brexit finally reached its moment of truth in the late afternoon.
Polls show that Johnson is second only to the prime minister himself in his capacity to influence the outcome of the referendum.
Johnson’s statement announcing his support for the Leave campaign offered some comfort to Cameron with the mayor’s suggestion that he would not play a leading role or take part in televised debates with other Conservatives. But his support, along with that of justice secretary Michael Gove, could transform the Leave campaign, lending it credibility as well as star power.
What the Leave campaign might look like without such figures was on display at a rally in London last Friday evening for the pro-Brexit Grassroots Out.
The most prominent politicians on the platform were Nigel Farage and George Galloway, two of the most polarising names in British politics.
The Conservative commentator Iain Martin, a Eurosceptic, described the atmosphere as "akin to standing in a saloon bar in 1975 or in a golf clubhouse in 1968 while someone explains their lurid theories about European history 1914-1945 based on repeated viewings of Battle of Britain".
Gove’s statement explaining his decision offers a clear outline of the case for leaving the EU, rooted primarily in the issue of sovereignty but also informed by a perception that the EU is failing.
He said that membership of the EU prevented Britain from being able to change huge swathes of law to choose who makes critical decisions.
“Laws which govern citizens in this country are decided by politicians from other nations who we never elected and can’t throw out.
“We can take out our anger on elected representatives in Westminster but whoever is in Government in London cannot remove or reduce VAT, cannot support a steel plant through troubled times, cannot build the houses we need where they’re needed and cannot deport all the individuals who shouldn’t be in this country,” he said.
Gove contrasted Britain’s achievements, from the abolition of slavery to the creation of the National Health Service, with what he characterised as the EU’s failure to live up to the good intentions of its founders.
“The euro has created economic misery for Europe’s poorest people. European Union regulation has entrenched mass unemployment. EU immigration policies have encouraged people traffickers and brought desperate refugee camps to our borders.
“Far from providing security in an uncertain world, the EU’s policies have become a source of instability and insecurity.
“Razor wire once more criss-crosses the continent, historic tensions between nations such as Greece and Germany have resurfaced in ugly ways and the EU is proving incapable of dealing with the current crises in Libya and Syria,” he said.
The Leave campaign remains divided, with rival camps seeking to be chosen by the Electoral Commission next month as the official Leave campaign.
Johnson, Gove and his pro-Brexit cabinet colleagues have joined Vote Leave, which is more moderate than the Ukip-dominated Leave.EU. Grassroots Out is an offshoot of Leave.EU and both organisations are bankrolled by Ukip donor Arron Banks.
While the Leave campaigners are filled with passionate intensity, some of Cameron’s cabinet allies have made clear they are backing the Remain side with no passion at all.
"With a heavy heart and no enthusiasm, I shall be voting for the UK to remain a member of the European Union," wrote business secretary Sajid Javid in the Mail on Sunday.
“The fallout from a ‘leave’ vote this summer would only add to economic turbulence that is, quite possibly, about to engulf the world.”
