Miliband: We will never walk away from EU

LABOUR will ‘never’ walk away from the European Union, Ed Miliband will say today.

In a rare foreign policy speech, the Labour leader will pledge to ‘restore our commitment’ to the EU and other international groups such as the United Nations.

Mr Miliband has all but ruled out a referendum on Europe, saying it is ‘very unlikely’ there will be a transfer of powers to the EU that would trigger one.

Today he will accuse David Cameron of ‘taking Britain to the edge of European exit’. And he will pledge to embrace the EU in a bid to secure reforms.

‘We will be rebuild our influence, and that starts with the EU,’ he will say. ‘I want a clear message to be sent to our European partners that an incoming Labour government will be serious about leading once again in Europe and serious also about reforming Europe.

‘Leaving Europe would be profoundly damaging to the lives of our people and the future of our country. We will never put the national interest at risk by threatening to leave.’ His comments echo a controversial intervention this month by Tony Blair, who said Britain’s membership of the EU was ‘too important’ to put to a public vote.

Mr Miliband’s decision to turn his back on a referendum has angered some senior Labour figures, who fear it leaves the party looking dangerously out of touch with public opinion.

But he will claim today that Britain’s hopes of achieving reform in Brussels have been weakened by Mr Cameron’s pledge to hold an In/Out referendum by the end of 2017. ‘This government’s approach to Europe means that even when Britain’s interests are shared by other member states, EU leaders are reluctant to support us because they think we already have one foot out of the door,’ he will say.

He will accuse the Prime Minister of backing a referendum because he is ‘too weak’ to take on his party’s Rightwingers and his fear of Ukip.

In an incendiary claim he will warn that Mr Cameron ‘has presided over the biggest loss of influence for our country in a generation’.

Mr Miliband’s claim to statesmanship will anger Tory high command, who point out he withdrew his support for strikes on Syria for its use of chemical weapons in 2013 under pressure from Left-wingers in his shadow cabinet.

But the Labour leader will accuse the Tories of failing to learn the lessons of the Iraq War. He will also commit to putting climate change ‘at the core of Labour’s foreign policy’, including pushing for costly targets to cut carbon emissions to zero.

Former business secretary Lord Mandelson last night admitted voters were still spooked by the economic record of the last Labour government.

He told Channel Four News: ‘People like Labour’s values and feel they are more in touch, but they have a problem about their record from the last government, and the last two years where people feel, fairly or not, that we allowed debt, borrowing and the deficit to run away from us.’

Lord Mandelson also acknowledged there was ‘quite of lot of fear’ among business leaders about the prospect of a Labour government. But he insisted it was ‘misplaced’.

‘EU reluctant to support us’