EXCLUSIVE: "80 per cent want to quit the EU"
BRITAIN is marching towards the EU exit door today after eight out of 10 people voted to leave in a historic poll.
The biggest vote on this country’s ties to Brussels for 40 years saw 80 per cent say they no longer want to be in Europe, the Daily Express can reveal.
It marks a huge leap forward in this newspaper’s crusade to get Britain out of the EU.
Some 14,581 people voted – 11,706 of them want the UK to quit compared with 2,725 who want to remain part of the EU.
The mini-referendum – the first on the issue since 1975 – was organised by two senior Tory backbenchers and a prospective Tory MP.
They believe the overwhelming result, which will be presented to David Cameron today, will force him to bring forward his planned in-or-out vote on the UK’s future in Europe to next year instead of 2017.
The landslide result heaps further pressure on the Prime Minister to act as it comes just days after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker compared British membership of the EU to a doomed romance and suggested it was time for Britain to get a divorce.
The Tory poll was organised across three neighbouring parliamentary constituencies by Peter Bone, MP for Wellingborough, Philip Hollobone, MP for Kettering, and Tom Pursglove, who is standing as Tory candidate for Corby and East Northamptonshire at this year’s general election.
Following the count, carried out in the London offices of the Daily Express yesterday, Mr Bone said: “Eight out of 10 people who took part want to come out of Europe – that is extraordinary.
"It is very, very, very clear they want to come out.”
The turnout, he added, shows there is a “huge interest” in having a nationwide referendum.
“People actually bothering to put X on a ballot paper clearly shows that people have been bothered to take part in a referendum and there is a huge interest in it,” he added.
“Only the Conservatives will give us the referendum.
"Ukip can’t and Labour and the Lib Dems won’t.”
Mr Hollobone said he expected the result would be reflected nationwide.
“My gut feeling is that there would be a majority of people voting to leave across the country,” he said.
“Maybe not on the scale we have seen in North Northamptonshire but a majority nevertheless.
"That is something I wouldn’t have said 10 years ago.”
We will not support a Government that does not want a referendum
Mr Pursglove said: “In North Northamptonshire people are sick to death with the EU superstate.
"We saw from the doorstep that people are very worried about Europe.
“This is the first, hard, concrete evidence of people in Middle England wanting to come out of the EU.”
Along with the result the three Conservatives will deliver an open letter to the Prime Minister when they go to Downing Street today.
It will make clear that, if elected, they will only support a Government that promises a referendum by the end of 2017 – if not earlier.
Mr Bone said: “We will not support a Government that does not want a referendum.
“If there was a coalition with the Conservatives being formed and they said we should drop the referendum pledge in the national interest we would not support that.”
Meanwhile former Tory prime minister Sir John Major warned Mr Cameron that he should avoid negotiating with his European partners “through a megaphone” and be ready to make concessions in order to achieve meaningful reform.
The voting exercise was the biggest poll on the issue since the national referendum in June 1975.
Ballot papers were delivered to 100,000 households in the three constituencies between May and the end of last year.
There were a total of 150 spoiled papers.
Clarification
An earlier version of this article carried the following headline "EXCLUSIVE: 80 per cent of Britons want to quit EU in biggest poll for 40 years."
