Britain's Tories to propose EU referendum law

By AFP.

Britain's Conservative Party will on Tuesday propose laws to force an in-out referendum on the country's membership of the European Union to be held by the end of 2017, the party confirmed.

Prime Minister David Cameron is hoping to head off growing pressure from the eurosceptic wing of his party after 70 rebel MPs threatened to defy him in a parliamentary vote scheduled for later this week.

Eurosceptic MP John Baron introduced the non-binding motion expressing "regret" that last week's Queen's Speech, which set out the government's priorities for the year, did not include a promise to legislate for a referendum on EU membership.

Cameron has promised to hold an in-out referendum if his party wins a majority at the next general election in 2015. Currently the Tories share power with the smaller pro-EU Liberal Democrats.

But eurosceptic Tories are demanding an earlier vote or binding commitment to force a referendum even if the party were to lose the next election.

Party leaders are hoping that the publication of Tuesday's "draft legislation", which would write this commitment into law if passed, will persuade the rebel MPs to drop their bill criticising the Queen's Speech.

The Lib Dems will likely block Cameron's efforts to bring the bill himself, therefore it is expected to be a "Private Members' bill", introduced by a Conservative backbencher, confirmed a Tory Party spokesman.

The bill would normally be defeated as the opposition Labour Party traditionally backs Britain's EU membership, but the party could vote in favour of the referendum in order to pile pressure on Cameron.

If a referendum were forced before the general election, the prime minister would be expected to campaign to keep Britain in the bloc, potentially putting him at odds with public opinion and jeopardising his chances of re-election.

US President Barack Obama on Monday endorsed Cameron's Europe strategy and stressed that it was up to Britons to decide their own fate.

Obama strikingly backed Cameron's plan to seek to renegotiate Britain's membership in the bloc, before holding an in-out referendum, after talks at the White House.

"I will say this, that David's basic point that you probably want to see if you can fix what's broken in a very important relationship before you break it off makes some sense to me," Obama said at a press conference with Cameron in Washington.

Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/Tories-to-propose-EU-referendum-law/-/1068/1851890/-/p5to3y/-/index.html