BOTH sides of the EU referendum debate have served the public poorly, a Bournemouth MP has said.

Conor Burns, MP for Bournemouth West, was speaking to the Daily Echo having teamed up with the county's recently re-elected Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill to promote 'Brexit'.

Asked about the campaign, Mr Burns said he believed it had been a "poor debate" in which both sides had "to different degrees" called upon questionable figures.

"Overall it has been a negative, hollow debate on a decision which will affect everyone in this country for decades, even generations to come," he said.

"There has been very little from Remain about the idealistic arguments for staying in of the kind that dominated the campaign in the 1970s. Some very spurious figures have been put forward.

"Also there has been a very unrealistic demand for every last detail of what leaving would look like. Perhaps there has not been enough emphasis on the thing we can guarantee - we will make our own laws."

Mr Underhill said he believed history would remember the campaign as "fundamentally flawed" due to the direct involvement of the Government on one side.

"We fought a good natured, professional campaign last month (the PCC election) in which I was against a Conservative candidate, but I approached Conor afterwards and said lets show people that the referendum is a bigger issue than party politics," he said.

"This is good news, an opportunity to make this country better."

The former senior police officer said one reason he was supporting Brexit was to give the UK more control over its borders.

"You can still have the free movement of people but with more control, and I think we would be able to get this if we come out," he said.

"We have never seen a refugee crisis like this in our history, nor a moving, unpredictable beast like Daesh/ISIS trying to kill our citizens.

"We need our decision making, our democracy, our state security back to keep our citizens safe."

Mr Burns, a parliamentary private secretary to the Treasury, said he believed fears about UK trade declining in the event of Brexit were unfounded.

"Over 90 per cent of UK businesses don't do any trade with Europe, but with the rest of the world and internally," he said.

"Part of the problem with the EU is its unwieldiness, 28 member states need to agree to a common position before they can enter a free trade agreement.

"There is still no agreement with the US in place. The US is the largest single investor into the UK.

"Back in 1980 the 28 member states of the EU represented about 30 per cent of world GDP. That figure is now below 20 per cent.

"If Britain were liberated we could negotiate our own bilateral agreements which would be hugely beneficial."

He said many of those predicting big business would leave the country in the event of Brexit had claimed the same would happen if Britain refused to join the single currency.

"There has been too much talk of the Swiss model or the Norwegian model, how about a good British model, how about the fifth largest economy in the world negotiates with the remainder of the EU," he added.