Cameron planning EU poll next June to boost his chance of winning
DAVID Cameron is planning to hold his in- out referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU within a year, Whitehall sources claimed yesterday.
Insiders say he wants to rush forward the poll to next June to try to wrong- foot his opponents. And he is reportedly set to announce the date at the annual Tory conference in October.
A senior Tory spokeswoman yesterday dismissed reports of June 2016 as “speculation”. But insiders say he is convinced a vote next summer gives the best chance of securing a vote for Britain to stay in the EU.
A senior source said: “Polls show that support for remaining inside the EU is the highest it has been for a quarter of a century.
“The Prime Minister has already made his case to all the other 27 EU leaders and a vote held next year or the year after will not affect the outcome.”
A multi- billion pound bail- out plan for debt- stricken Greece designed to keep the eurozone intact was described as “influential” in determining the date.
And Mr Cameron is understood to want the poll out of the way before elections in Germany and France in 2017 in a bid to get backing from Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Francois Hollande.
His decision to hold the poll followed pressure including from the Daily Express’s crusade for Britain to quit the EU. He promises a vote before the end of 2017.
Negotiations with EU leaders for a new membership deal for the UK include powers repatriated from Brussels and curbs on welfare benefits for EU migrants. Some Tory MPs want the vote delayed to give the anti- Brussels campaign more time to build momentum.
Ukip MP Douglas Carswell said last night: “If it is going to be June next year, then so be it. We need about six months to ensure that it is free and fair.
“I suspect David Cameron will try to be very clever in delivering some surprises in his new deal.
“Voters will have to ask whether they want what Goldman Sachs, Barack Obama and David Cameron say is good for our country or whether what they know in their hearts is good for our country, the right to govern ourselves.”
The renegotiation push stepped up a gear yesterday when Chancellor George Osborne went to Paris, understood to be the first in a series of visits to European capitals over the next six months.
In a speech today in Paris he is expected to say: “We have been returned to office with a very clear mandate to improve Britain’s relationship with the rest of the EU and to reform the EU.
“The referendum here in Britain is an opportunity to make the case for reform across the EU.”