PM’s ‘scaremongering on EU exit’

DAVID Cameron triggered a major row over Europe last night by insisting the UK would suffer if it follows Norway and establishes a looser relationship with Brussels.

The Prime Minister told MPs that the ‘Norway model’ could see the UK handing over just as much money to the EU, would not cut migration and would leave Britain with ‘no seat at the table’ for negotiations.

Norway is not a member of the European Union but has access to the single market. Some Eurosceptics have suggested Britain should follow suit if we leave the EU. But Mr Cameron claimed that the Norway model would not be a ‘good outcome’ for Britain.

Last night, Out campaigners dismissed his claims as scare tactics. Other critics, including former Tory chancellor Lord Lawson, accused him of ‘doing Britain down’ by suggesting the country would struggle outside the EU.

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Mr Cameron was challenged by Tory MP Christopher Pincher to agree that ‘all options will be considered’, including the Norway model. The Prime Minister confirmed that ‘no options are off the table’ but he added that it was important to be ‘clear about the consequences’ of the alternatives to EU membership. He said he would ‘guide very strongly against’ the Norway option, adding: ‘Norway actually pays as much per head to the EU as we do, they actually take twice as many, per head, migrants as we do in this country, but of course they have no seat at the table, no ability to negotiate.’ Lord Lawson said: ‘The Prime Minister should stop talking Britain down and pretending that the British people have no choice but to accept the supremacy of EU law.’

Mr Cameron’s comments came after a Downing Street aide said people need to understand that life outside the Union was not ‘a land of milk and honey’. Mr Cameron is in Iceland today for talks with northern European leaders, at which he is expected to continue his drive to win support for his renegotiation of Britain’s membership.

IN a sign of rising panic, with the ‘in’ and ‘out’ camps neck-and-neck, this was the week David Cameron threw away his pretence that he’s keeping an open mind over Britain’s membership of the Eu.

true, the official line remains that he ‘rules nothing out’ and will still recommend exit if his renegotiations fail.

But after his extraordinary attack on the exit campaign, how can our partners believe his threat to urge withdrawal if they refuse to reform their unelected, anti-democratic, over-regulated, corrupt, border-free union? Indeed, whatever possessed him to warn yesterday about the dangers of pulling out, saying Britain should ‘guard very strongly’ against trying to emulate non-Eu Norway?

‘Norway actually pays as much per head to the Eu as we do,’ he told MPs. ‘they take twice as many migrants per head as we do. But of course they have no seat at the table, no ability to negotiate.’

But then nobody is suggesting that Britain – with our vastly larger and more diverse economy – should strike precisely the same deal as oil-rich Norway, with its huge land mass and tiny population. and while Norway may not have a seat at the table, Britain is only one voice among 28 in Brussels. So what use is our seat, if the other 27 refuse to listen – and if the laws they impose on us damage our national interests?

take migration, the issue at the top of voters’ concerns. the Prime Minister promised to tighten our borders. yet from the very start of the renegotiations, we were told the principle of free movement wasn’t even up for discussion.

Next, Mr Cameron’s modest proposal to withhold tax credits from Eu migrants for four years was shot down in flames, with Brussels instructing us to pay full benefits after mere months.

Or consider the bitterly resented ‘tampon tax’. What good did our seat at the table do us, when the Eu ordered us to impose a minimum 5 per cent Vat on sanitary towels, as if they were a luxury?

More breathtaking still, Brussels plans to outlaw the UK’s default filters barring access to internet porn, introduced after a Mail campaign. What business is it of the Eu to decide how nations may or may not protect their children?

to cap it all, European Commission president Jean- Claude Juncker now demands yet more money from member states, protesting that the Eu’s £109billion budget is ‘too small’ to cope with the migrant crisis.

What a slap in the face for Mr Cameron, who claimed a major victory in 2013 when the Eu agreed his demand to freeze the budget until 2020.

Indeed, you might expect such constant rebuffs to put fire in the Prime Minister’s belly, hardening his negotiating stance and lending credence to his threat that he may urge voters to pull out.

But no. With the talks hardly begun, he delivers his utterly specious warning against following Norway’s example – thereby giving the clearest possible signal that he’ll campaign to remain in the Eu, no matter how shabbily it treats Britain.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister leans on eurosceptic ministers to follow his lead on pain of the sack – leaving only Boris Johnson, in his breaks between clowning, to raise the occasional doubt about our subjection to Brussels.

Indeed, as the Eu, BBC and Whitehall gear up their publicly-funded propaganda drives in support of membership, it seems we must brace ourselves for a dismal campaign of insidious spin, suppressed truths and downright lies – instead of the responsible and serious debate on an issue of historic significance.

With the twin crises of mass migration and the euro tearing Europe apart, what a wasted opportunity to exploit the Eu’s weakness to Britain’s advantage!