NEW PLAN FOR EARLY EU VOTE
‘ Sooner the better’ says Cameron
DAVID Cameron has given his strongest hint yet of his desire to bring forward an EU referendum.
It could be as early as next year, the Daily Express has learned.
The Prime Minister has privately told Tory MPs he would be “delighted” to trigger the historic poll on Britain’s ties with Brussels much sooner than his deadline of the end of 2017.
“The sooner I can deliver on our commitment of rene- gotiation and a referendum, the better,” he said.
His comment, in a letter to Tory backbenchers, raised hopes last night that the vote could come next year if he returns to Downing Street after the general election on May 7.
It comes after senior Tories, including London Mayor Boris Johnson, called for the referendum to be held next year to end the uncertainty. And it follows on the heels of the Daily Express crusade to leave the EU.
Tory MP Peter Bone said: “It is really encouraging that the Prime Minister is saying that he would like to hold the referendum sooner.
“There seems to be no reason at all to keep the British people waiting any longer.”
Mr Cameron wrote to Mr Bone and fellow Tory MP Philip Hollobone after they organised a mini- referendum in Northamptonshire. The poll across three
constituencies found that a massive 80 per cent of voters taking part wanted the UK to quit.
More than 14,000 people voted in the poll which was organised in recognition of the huge support for the Daily Express crusade.
In letters to both MPs, Mr Cameron thanked them for the survey and told them he could “assure you of the Conservative Party’s commitment to holding a referendum on our membership of the European Union by the end of 2017”. He then went on to point out his desire to hold the poll much sooner if his planned renegotiation of Britain’s EU membership can be swiftly concluded.
Referring to the 2017 deadline, he said: “If we could do that earlier, I would be delighted.”
He added: “Our job, between now and polling day, is to ensure voters are aware that only the Conservatives can and will give them an inout referendum on Europe.”
Mr Bone added: “The reason to have the referendum early is that we don’t want this dragging on. It is not as if there isn’t already a fierce debate in the country about Europe.
“The renegotiation is not something that will take a long time. We will know pretty quickly if it is going to be a success or not.
“So there seems no reason at all to keep the British people waiting any longer.
“When I speak to people on the doorsteps, they want to have a referendum now.”
Mr Hollobone said: “I welcome the new emphasis on having the referendum as soon as practicable rather than the previous emphasis on the backstop position of holding the vote by the end of 2017. Under a Conservative government, it will be ‘ make your mind up’ time. People will feel the time has come to just get on with it.”
Downing Street insiders deny there is any plan to hasten the referendum timetable to ensure that the poll would be held next year.
They point out that Mr Cameron is committed to a “complex” renegotiation. But a Tory government after the election would seek to call a vote as soon as possible.
CONTEMPT for public opinion is one of the hallmarks of the European Union. The unelected rulers in Brussels despise the very concept of accountability. The same arrogant disdain for democracy can be seen among Britain’s pro- EU fanatics who act as cheerleaders for the destruction of our sovereignty.
In the wake of mounting public disillusion with Brussels, both Ukip and the Conservatives have promised to hold a referendum on our country’s membership of the EU if they are in power after the next election. Yet Labour and the Lib Dems have shamefully rejected such a pledge.
This stance makes a mockery of all their progressive rhetoric about “listening” to the British public. “Trust the people”, said Winston Churchill but that is exactly what Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg refuse to do. The ostensible justification for their profoundly anti- democratic approach is that a referendum would create a long period of uncertainty, thereby damaging businesses and undermining the economy.
This line about “uncertainty” has been peddled by the Left ever since David Cameron first announced his commitment to a referendum on the EU by 2017 at the latest.
IN 2013 Miliband declared that the Conservatives’ policy amounted to “a huge gamble with the economy” that would put Britain “through years of uncertainty”. This week, addressing the British Chambers of Commerce, shadow vhancellor Ed Balls claimed that the prospect of a referendum is “hugely destabilising for businesses”.
But this is feeble, unconvincing stuff. Uncertainty is just a natural part of life. In a world of massive debts and fluctuating oil prices, of militant Islam and expansionist Russia, no one can possibly be sure about the future or what it holds.
That is particularly true of Europe, where the euro ushered in a new era of permanent crisis and instability. It is the eurozone that is the real engine of uncertainty, not the Tory and Ukip pledge of a referendum.
That reality is recognised by business. Indeed, contrary to the anti- democratic propaganda from Labour and the Lib Dems, commerce in Britain appears to be overwhelmingly in favour of a referendum. An opinion poll of British businesses published on Tuesday showed that 66 per cent of firms support a national vote, with just 26 per cent opposed.
Similarly John Longworth, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce which represents 92,000 companies employing around five million people, argued at the organisation’s conference this week that the best way to reduce the growing uncertainty would be to hold a referendum.
Just as deceitful is Labour’s warning about the damage to investment caused by the referendum pledge. In fact since Cameron made his promise in early 2013 investment has rap- idly increased, fuelling some of the fastest economic growth in the developed world and creating two million private sector jobs, more than the whole of the rest of the EU put together.
It is the height of hypocrisy for Labour now to use the European issue as a vehicle for posing as the champion of business given its anti- enterprise outlook, which is reflected in its addiction to more taxes and greater regulation.
Last week Balls struggled to name a single senior business leader who backs Labour. This is the party of the public sector, welfare and immigration. It does not understand wealth creation, only its confiscation. What most businesses
THE modern Labour movement does not really do democracy. Miliband’s party is largely bankrolled by the trade unions which installed him as their puppet leader. In many of its urban boroughs it has created a form of rotten one- party rule, as we have graphically seen in the Rotherham child abuse scandal. For purely partisan reasons Labour destroyed the integrity of our electoral system through the introduction of mass postal voting and the promotion of dodgy registers.
Disgracefully mass immigration was allowed to widen Labour’s client base, since more than 70 per cent of migrants vote Labour, while Labour has further undermined our society’s cohesion through its enthusiasm for divisive identity politics, where voters are categorised not by their opinions but by their ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation.
The very opposite of equality, this approach encourages victimhood, discrimination and stereotyping, as deputy leader Harriet Harman showed this week with the launch of her absurd Barbie- style pink bus in a desperate attempt to enhance Labour’s appeal to female voters. Widely condemned as patronising to women the move achieved the exact opposite.
Under Miliband, Labour is no longer a mainstream party but an ugly alliance of Left- wing vested interests and pressure groups.
That is why it has no real understanding of democracy and why it wants to deny us a say over the European Union.
‘ A referendum would reduce uncertainty’