Hold a vote on the European Union as soon as possible, David Cameron is warned
DAVID Cameron was urged to hold a European Union referendum as soon as possible yesterday after claims Downing Street was pondering a vote next year.
The Prime Minister vows that if the Tories are elected in May he will renegotiate Britain’s EU membership terms and give the electorate a vote on whether to stay in or leave by the end of 2017.
But he was urged to act next year by Tory Eurosceptic MP Peter Bone, who recently helped to organise a poll in Northamptonshire that found 80 per cent wanted to leave Europe. “We don’t need an unbelievable amount of time to renegotiate,” said Mr Bone.
“From a Conservative point of view it would be very nice to be able to go into May’s election saying the referendum will be next year.
“That’s what people on the doorstep are asking us for – to have it straight away.” One minister told a newspaper that 2016 was the preferred date.
Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond’s rising optimism about EU partners’ support for reform was said to have encouraged some to back a 2016 vote, as France and Germany may be less willing to make concessions in 2017 when each face elections.
A No 10 source said: “The Prime Minister has made a clear commitment to hold an in-out referendum by the end of 2017. But there are absolutely no plans to hold the referendum in 2016. We didn’t choose the end of 2017 by mistake.”
UK Independence Party MP Douglas Carswell said Mr Cameron planned to seek a “bogus new deal that won’t amount to a row of beans”.
He said: “What we need is more Ukip MPs so we can make sure that if Mr Cameron is still Prime Minister we get a real referendum, not a fix.”
Welsh and Scottish nationalists should be able to stop Britain leaving the EU, Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood said yesterday.
