It’s time to stop this evasion over Europe

THE Prime Minister was desperate yesterday to show how hard he is working to secure a radical renegotiation of Britain’s EU membership terms.

In interviews, he said he was confident of achieving a ‘good deal’ from our European partners that would enable him to recommend staying in the union.

‘I’ve got the right strategy, the right plans, the right team to deliver it,’ he said. But the problem is – with the referendum deadline closing in – we still have no idea what this ‘good deal’ might look like.

Will David Cameron insist on curbs to freedom of movement within the EU, total control over our national borders, primacy of British courts over Strasbourg, an end to automatic benefits for migrants? What are his red lines?

He won’t say. And to add to the confusion, he sent out distinctly mixed messages about whether he would want to leave the EU if his demands were not met.

He told one newspaper he had not ruled out campaigning for a No vote, then contemptuously dismissed Eurosceptics in his own party as ‘those people’.

This lack of transparency simply can’t go on. With under two years to go until the vote, he must tell the country exactly what his minimum requirements are.

Further ambiguity will only fuel the suspicion that he would settle for merely cosmetic changes, which do nothing to restore Britain’s lost sovereignty or protect our long-term national interest.

The stakes could not be higher. As Chris Deerin argues on this page, division over Europe is a direct threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom.

Truly, this is an issue where the Prime Minister needs to display both a cool head and genuine first-class generalship.