That this "Plays perfectly for the Brexit base..." was obviously the Leave.EU campaign's considered dog-whistle.
And very successfully too: creating outrage amongst the trendy Liberals it consequently got lots more free publicity. -You really should stop kidding yourself on. Brexit grew out a rich bed of xenophobia created by years of incessantly shovelling the public loads of anti EU foreigner media propaganda: making that kind of shit up was Boris' actual job at the Daily Telegraph and now, well, he's your great blonde hope...