MANCHESTER, United Kingdom – Two former Conservative cabinet ministers have called on the United States to back Britain leaving the European Union (EU).
Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference, Liam Fox and Owen Paterson called on President Obama to stop interfering in British affairs and to support the UK if it quits the EU.
Former Defence Secretary Fox said that the Obama administration supports the European Union because it is “large, corporatist, statist and therefore in line with [their] general economic and philosophical approach”.
However, US lawmakers should realise that the euro is a “major threat to global financial stability”, and if the EU is allowed to continue expanding it will become a major threat to NATO due to the “strong thread of anti-Americanism” in the Brussels elite.
“There has long been in the European Union an attempt to supplant the United States’ interests and influence on the European continent,” he said.
Former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson agreed, saying it is “massively” in the American interest to have a “regalvanised, rejuvenated, independent United Kingdom playing its role on the world stage.”
“Whenever freedom and democracy are at risk, the only two countries you can trust are the United States and the United Kingdom,” he said.
The former ministers’ intervention comes as Prime Minister David Cameron struggles to renegotiation Britain’s relationship with the EU. Last month, Breitbart London reported how German Chancellor Angela Merkel is now demanding he support an “EU army” if she is to make any serious concessions.
A Berlin source said: “If you want favours, you have to give favours. If Cameron wants a ‘flexible Europe’, he must let other members integrate further. Yes – opt out, opt out, opt out – and then shut up.”
Fox and Paterson remain notable figures on the party’s right and are popular among grass roots supporters.