To be fair the Remain campaign was led by tories: they were, and are, trying to get rid of the NHS (bit by bit, neoliberal “reform” after “reform”) so it would have been difficult for them to have convincingly led a campaign on that issue.
Much like a convincing remain message was fatally compromised by the fact that racist dog-whistle anti-europeanism has been the default message from the tories since Thatcher.
While Cameron was always utterly incompetent and it is an indictment of contemporary conservatism that such a feeble minded person rose through their ranks to leadership there is no tory that could lead that campaign due to their history and conflicted nature. They love anti-democratic “free trade” mechanisms that drive a relentless race to the bottom in rights and protections but in order to get the working class to side with them they need to blame it on foreign others.
The EU and EU migration was a useful focus for them.
