Cameron to unveil plan for vote on EU
DAVID Cameron is poised to make a dramatic announcement that if re-elected he will call a referendum on Britain’s future in the European Union.
The Prime Minister will set out his plans to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s membership and then put the results to the public, Government sources say.
Mr Cameron signalled yesterday that the next Conservative manifesto will contain a pledge to claw back powers from the EU and give voters a say in the middle of the next Parliament.
He told MPs he did not want an immediate ‘in- out referendum’ on Britain’s current membership, insisting he did not want to leave the EU altogether. ‘But I am not happy with the status quo either,’ he said.
‘I think what the vast majority of this country wants is a new settlement with Europe and then that settlement being put to fresh consent.
‘That’s what will be going in our manifesto and I think it will get a ringing endorsement from the British people.’
Ministers have identified dozens of areas – including European rules on working time and the EU arrest warrant – where they believe Britain can forge looser ties with Brussels.
Mr Cameron believes that as the eurozone tries to save the single currency by coming closer together to form a ‘fiscal union’, Britain will be able to demand that powers handed to the EU are repatriated.
According to a report in The Spectator magazine today, Mr Cameron will announce a referendum ‘offering a choice between the new terms and out’ in the next nine weeks.
He is also expected to detail his plans in a major speech about Britain’s future relationship with Europe before a crunch EU leaders’ summit in December.
Labour’s former business secretary Lord Mandelson said yesterday that Britain was drifting towards the EU exit door because of the Prime Minister’s demands.
Speaking to the National Association of Pension Funds in Liverpool, he added: ‘Our European partners are losing interest in us.
‘Our staunch allies will drift away if they see Britain as destructive rather than constructive.’