PRIME Minister Cameron yesterday defended his renegotiation of Britain’s terms of EU membership, as a number of his cabinet ministers lined up to call for an EU exit in the just-announced June 23 referendum.
The Tory prime minister told the Andrew Marr Show that after two days of intense wrangling with EU leaders in Brussels last week, he had secured reforms ‘people said weren’t achievable’.
He said these included curbs to migrants’ benefits and exempting Britain from ‘ever closer union’. Cameron further claimed the offer on the table was a ‘better’ deal for the UK and would be ‘legally binding’.
He said that staying in a ‘reformed’ EU would safeguard the UK position in the single market and help in the fight against terrorism and crime, adding there is: ‘Safety in numbers in a dangerous world.’
Cameron warned: ‘If we leave the EU that might give you a feeling of sovereignty – but is it real? . . . you have an illusion of sovereignty but you don’t have power, don’t have control, you can’t get things done.’
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who is campaigning for an EU exit, later reacted to Cameron’s claims. Duncan Smith told the BBC that being a member of the EU ‘leaves the door open’ to attacks such as those in Paris last year.
He said: ‘This open border does not allow us to check and control people that may come and spend time. We’ve seen what happened in Paris where they spent ages planning and plotting so who’s to say it’s not beyond the wit of man that those might already be thinking about that.’
First to declare for an EU exit was justice secretary Michael Gove, a close friend and former key ally of Cameron. Gove and fellow cabinet ministers Priti Patel, John Whittingdale, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers all declared their support for the Out campaign on Saturday.
The so-called ‘gang of six’ are now set to be joined by at least 12 junior ministers and more than 100 Tory MPs, with London Mayor, Boris Johnson, expected to join them. The Labour Party, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems have said they are in favour of staying in Europe. The DUP said it will recommend voting to leave the EU.
