Tom Peck's Sketch: 'Safety' proves best form of attack for David Cameron

If you happen to work anywhere a factory, you can be sure that the Prime Minister will be coming to pay you a visit...

David Cameron addresses employees at BAE Systems in Preston (PA)

David Cameron knows that the campaign to stay in the EU is about more than so-called ‘Project Fear’ and where better to make that point than standing in front of the conical nose of the world’s most advanced fighter jet?

On Thursday it was the staff of BAE Systems in Lancashire’s turn to have their factory floor shut down so they could all hear how important the EU referendum is for British business. Come June there will scarcely be a production line anywhere in the country that won’t have been switched off so that David Cameron can stand in front of it and stare down the barrel of the news cameras and proclaim how without him, British manufacturing will grind to a halt.

“This business is very important for our country,” he told them. “You make the ships that are vital to our Navy. You make the planes that are vital to our Air Force.”

The plane he was standing in front of had Royal Air Force of Oman written on the side, and the others in the room are all bound for Saudi Arabia. But the point still stands.

‘Safety’ has now firmly established itself as one of Cameron’s top three reasons we must stay in the EU. Here, he was preaching to the converted. In two foot high letters high above the hangar was a poster reading ‘THINK SAFETY FIRST’, which is quite rightly the motto for those involved in the manufacture of figher aircraft. Always bomb responsibly.

In a break with tradition, Cameron kept his jacket on for the speech. Usually, he likes to whip it off as he stands up, a sotto voce nod in the direction of his imagined view of manual labour. But the day after having told Jeremy Corbyn to ‘wear a proper suit’ his preferred sartorially reductive flourish was wisely off limits - at least until the Q and A.

And BAE’s staff were merciless in their interrogation. One chap waited patiently for the microphone in order to "congratulate the Prime Minister on the deal he has secured." Had Kim Jong Un dreamt up this tactic - a question and answer session in which employees are both being broadcast live on television and supervised by their bosses, who more of than not are Tory donors - it would be an international joke.

Another wanted to know why he “hadn’t heard anything about this renegotiation?”

“We’ve published a paper on it,” Cameron told him. “I can send you a copy.”

That certainly shut him up.

It’s often said the Queen must think the world smells of fresh paint. Our Prime Minister must think that factories are places where people gather round and sit in silence in front of switched off machines. And if you happen to work anywhere near one, you can be sure Dave will be coming to see you too. As Franklin D Roosevelt once almost said, the only thing you have to fear is Project Fear itself.