Cable: 'Petty' Brexiteers have forfeited respect

Sir Vince Cable, the former Business Secretary, today said Leave campaigners had “lost the respect” of the business community over the nationalistic tone of their campaign.

With polls showing Leave and Remain neck and neck, Cable said Brexit would throw a “giant spanner in the works” of Britain’s “quite fragile” economic recovery.

“I’ve been disappointed to the extent that people like Boris Johnson have resorted to petty, nationalistic stuff.

"If they win they’re going to find it very difficult to run the country because they will have lost the respect of enormous numbers of people, including the business community. Recession could set in rather quickly. It could become quite nasty,” he added.

The Lib-Dem grandee, speaking at an EU small business campaign event, also said hedge funds should be free to conduct private referendum polls and trade on the results.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson wants the practice banned.

Cable said: “This is a market economy. If people gamble they risk losing their money as well as winning.”

He said of the proposed ban: “I don’t think it’s sensible. You may think it’s tasteless but it’s part of a capitalist economy.”