It was reported in a recent Sunday Times article that an EU referendum could be held as early as May next year.
As a Eurosceptic, my political career has been entirely devoted to advocating such a referendum.
I believe that Britain’s membership of the European Union is financially harmful to our nation; but that point pales into insignificance against the loss of sovereignty that the EU represents to its member states. While some experts put the amount of legislation that originates from Brussels at anything between 15 percent and 75 percent, I believe that even 5 percent would be an unacceptable figure.
Ultimate power over the UK must rest with our elected representatives in Westminster.
Yes, there are issues that need international co-operation. That is why bodies such as the U.N., Interpol, G20, World Trade Organisation and NATO exist, and is why Britain is a member of these bodies. But the EU is not about international co-operation, it is an organisation which is dedicated primarily now to its own continued existence and expansion, regardless of what is good for its member states.
I want there to be a referendum, and I believe that when the British public are presented with the unbiased facts, they will vote to leave.
But don’t be confused. This latest suggestion from Number Ten is not motivated by a genuine desire to give the public a say. It is a last, desperate throw of the dice by a Tory administration desperate to cling to power at all costs.
Mr Cameron is seeking to neutralise UKIP to hang onto the levers of power. The Conservatives will present you with a stark choice – vote Conservative for a referendum, or vote UKIP and unwittingly usher in some horrible SNP-Labour coalition. This false ‘choice’ will be repeated to you over and over by their friends in the media as the General Election approaches.
The fact is, it is not our fault the Conservatives won’t win the next General Election. They haven’t been able to command a majority of public support for two decades.
The truth is that even after years of Labour misrule, the Conservatives had lost all credibility and had to rely on a coalition with the Liberal Democrats to prop themselves up.
If you buy into the Tory rhetoric and lend them your vote, they still are unlikely to win a majority and will seek probably another coalition, perhaps another coalition with the Europhile Liberal Democrats.
They will then do all they can to wriggle out of a referendum on Europe and if they are shamed into it, will campaign hard to stay in. I suspect they will time the referendum precisely at the point where the public have been presented with only one side of the argument.
But if you hold true to your convictions, UKIP MPs will be elected in significant numbers. We will be hold the government of whichever colour emerged from the General election to account, and force them to hold a referendum when the public have been informed of both sides of the argument.
When we vote to leave, the UK will regain its seat at the World Trade Organisation and work with bodies like the UNECE, NATO and the U.N. to co-operate with our European allies for mutual prosperity and common aims.
Whatever you think of me and my party, the real choice is this – either vote UKIP to engineer a real debate on Europe and our relationship with it, or place your vote elsewhere and become subsumed into a federal European superstate which already has its own flag, anthem and military battlegroups.
That is the real choice. And I trust in the British people to make the right choice.