Gove: Leave Voters Being Caricatured As Anti-Immigrant

1 December 2016, 19:15 | Updated: 1 December 2016, 19:18

One of the strongest voices on the Leave side says that people who voted us out of the EU have been unfairly painted as only caring about immigration.

"This referendum, it was a referendum on immigration, wasn't it?" asked Iain Dale.

"No, absolutely not," replied Gove. "The overwhelming reason was sovereignty.

"People wanted to take back control. Now, some of that was control of our borders. But I think it's striking that there's been a desire by some of the Remain camp to say that migration was the only issue driving people to the polls."

Why did he believe they were doing that? "In order to try to caricature Leave voters by saying they're single issue driven voters."

Pressed by Iain about whether Brexit could really mean immigration is reduced, Gove denied the public were "sold a pup" on that front.

"No!" insisted Gove. "All the research shows that people want to have a fair migration policy that doesn't discriminate between EU citizens and others."

Gove was in the studio to debate the big Brexit talking points with Alastair Campbell, who predicted that immigration will continue to increase even after we leave the EU.

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