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David Cameron has ruled out a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union on the grounds that the UK had their say 36 years ago.
A senior aide to the Prime Minister enraged eurosceptics yesterday by claiming that the UK must remain a member of the EU because Brussels bureaucrats have done ‘useful work’ on climate change and global poverty.
And he ignored the fact that no one under the age of 53 has ever had the chance to state their views on Brussels in a public vote.
Critics last night dismissed the justification as ‘ridiculous’, ‘patronising’ and ‘insulting’.
Laurence Mann, Mr Cameron’s political private secretary, issued the controversial justification for ignoring public clamour for a refrendum in a leaked letter.
He wrote: ‘We had a referendum on that issue in 1975, which produced a very clear result.
‘There is also one argument, in particular, against holding such a referendum that we find irrefutably powerful, namely that most people in our country want to say neither ‘yes’ to everything from the EU, nor ‘no’ to everything.’
More than 10,000 voters have signed a petition on the Downing Street website demanding a referendum.
Mr Mann’s provocative argument came in a letter to Anita Segar, a senior Conservative Party member in Mr Cameron’s home county of Oxfordshire.
Miss Segar, the president of the Society for Graduates at Oxford University, had written to the Prime Minister accusing him of ‘betrayal’ for failing to fulfil his manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on Europe.
Mr Mann responded: ‘We should not lose sight of the EU’s very useful work, such as ensuring that all the nations of Europe are equipped to face the biggest challenges of the 21st century: global competitiveness, global warming and global poverty.
‘These are compelling arguments for why we believe Britain should be an active member. Of course the EU has some serious failings too and there are certainly areas where its powers should be reduced.
‘A simplistic in/out referendum, posing an artificial choice that does not do justice to the range of views in the country, would be highly unlikely to settle the question of Britain’s membership of the EU at all.’
Mr Mann said the government would continue to fight to keep Britain out of the worst excesses of the Brussels bureaucracy.
Leading Eurosceptic Douglas Carswell, a Tory MP who has campaigned for an in-out referendum, ridiculed the notion that the referendum in 1975 had settled matters.
Eurosceptic: Tory MP Douglas Carswell is demanding a referendum on EU membership
Eurosceptic: Tory MP Douglas Carswell is demanding a referendum on EU membership
He told the Mail: ‘By that logic we wouldn’t bother to have general elections. If you follow that argument we should just scrap elections.
‘What surprises me about this response is that we just had a referendum on electoral reform despite the fact that it was not in our election manifesto.
‘We had a referendum to satisfy the desires of one section of the political class but the government isn’t prepared to have one in response to the concerns of millions of voters about our relationship with the EU.
‘If we left, we would have the chance to prosper in a truly global economy but it would also renew our democracy and mean we were no longer ruled by a bunch of Brussels technocrats.’
Tim Montgomerie, the editor of the ConservativeHome website for grassroots Tories, added: ‘It is both ridiculous and insulting for Cameron’s office to suggest the 1975 referendum means we don’t now need a vote.
‘Anyone now aged under 53 was not able or eligible to vote in 1975.
‘Just as importantly, the EU was then described as the Common Market or the European Economic Community. Since then the Common Market has moved very substantially towards a political union.’
Read more: Fury as Cameron rules out EU referendum because we had our say in poll 36 years ago | Mail Online
A senior aide to the Prime Minister enraged eurosceptics yesterday by claiming that the UK must remain a member of the EU because Brussels bureaucrats have done ‘useful work’ on climate change and global poverty.
And he ignored the fact that no one under the age of 53 has ever had the chance to state their views on Brussels in a public vote.
Critics last night dismissed the justification as ‘ridiculous’, ‘patronising’ and ‘insulting’.
Laurence Mann, Mr Cameron’s political private secretary, issued the controversial justification for ignoring public clamour for a refrendum in a leaked letter.
He wrote: ‘We had a referendum on that issue in 1975, which produced a very clear result.
‘There is also one argument, in particular, against holding such a referendum that we find irrefutably powerful, namely that most people in our country want to say neither ‘yes’ to everything from the EU, nor ‘no’ to everything.’
More than 10,000 voters have signed a petition on the Downing Street website demanding a referendum.
Mr Mann’s provocative argument came in a letter to Anita Segar, a senior Conservative Party member in Mr Cameron’s home county of Oxfordshire.
Miss Segar, the president of the Society for Graduates at Oxford University, had written to the Prime Minister accusing him of ‘betrayal’ for failing to fulfil his manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on Europe.
Mr Mann responded: ‘We should not lose sight of the EU’s very useful work, such as ensuring that all the nations of Europe are equipped to face the biggest challenges of the 21st century: global competitiveness, global warming and global poverty.
‘These are compelling arguments for why we believe Britain should be an active member. Of course the EU has some serious failings too and there are certainly areas where its powers should be reduced.
‘A simplistic in/out referendum, posing an artificial choice that does not do justice to the range of views in the country, would be highly unlikely to settle the question of Britain’s membership of the EU at all.’
Mr Mann said the government would continue to fight to keep Britain out of the worst excesses of the Brussels bureaucracy.
Leading Eurosceptic Douglas Carswell, a Tory MP who has campaigned for an in-out referendum, ridiculed the notion that the referendum in 1975 had settled matters.
Eurosceptic: Tory MP Douglas Carswell is demanding a referendum on EU membership
Eurosceptic: Tory MP Douglas Carswell is demanding a referendum on EU membership
He told the Mail: ‘By that logic we wouldn’t bother to have general elections. If you follow that argument we should just scrap elections.
‘What surprises me about this response is that we just had a referendum on electoral reform despite the fact that it was not in our election manifesto.
‘We had a referendum to satisfy the desires of one section of the political class but the government isn’t prepared to have one in response to the concerns of millions of voters about our relationship with the EU.
‘If we left, we would have the chance to prosper in a truly global economy but it would also renew our democracy and mean we were no longer ruled by a bunch of Brussels technocrats.’
Tim Montgomerie, the editor of the ConservativeHome website for grassroots Tories, added: ‘It is both ridiculous and insulting for Cameron’s office to suggest the 1975 referendum means we don’t now need a vote.
‘Anyone now aged under 53 was not able or eligible to vote in 1975.
‘Just as importantly, the EU was then described as the Common Market or the European Economic Community. Since then the Common Market has moved very substantially towards a political union.’
Read more: Fury as Cameron rules out EU referendum because we had our say in poll 36 years ago | Mail Online
