EU setback means no referendum before next autumn

DAVID Cameron was last night forced to rethink his EU referendum plans after admitting there was no prospect of a deal on reforms by the end of the year.

He had hoped for an agreement at a Brussels summit in two weeks, with an In/Out vote next June. But continued opposition from other countries over his call to restrict benefits for migrants means talks will drag on into 2016.

The Prime Minister said yesterday the ‘scale’ of the reforms he wants to Britain’s relationship with the EU rules out a deal ‘in one go’, so the poll will be put off until autumn at the earliest.

Following talks in Sofia with Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov, Mr Cameron said he would use the final EU summit of this year to ‘keep up the pace of negotiations’.

‘We need fundamental, legally binding and irreversible changes. The scale of what we are asking

‘Fundamental change needed’

for means we will not resolve this easily. We need time to ensure each issue is properly addressed.

‘I do not expect to reach agreement at this December summit but we won’t take our foot off the pedal,’ Mr Cameron said.

A deal cannot be reached until the next EU meeting, in February. His admission came just a day after Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said a number of member states opposed Mr Cameron’s call for a four-year curb on in-work benefits for new arrivals from the EU.

Referendum rules mean there has to be a four-month campaign so a February deal would make it hard to hold a poll in June 2016.

Officials want to avoid a vote in the summer, when the number of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa rises. Number 10 confirmed Mr Cameron’s call for a benefits curb remains ‘core’ to his renegotiation.