Fifty Tories ‘to lead EU exit bid’

Former Tory cabinet ministers Owen Paterson and John Redwood are among backers of the newly formed group that will – at first – support David Cameron’s attempts to revise the terms of Britain’s EU membership.

But the group, named Conservatives for Britain (CfB), is set to lead a campaign for the UK’s departure from the EU if sufficient control is not returned over issues such as free trade.

You cannot keep all the goodies and forget about the costs Poland’s European affairs minister

Conservative MP Steve Baker, the campaign’s Westminster chairman, said: “The Conservative Government has promised the British people an in/out referendum on Britain’s EU membership and we must explore the possibility of leaving if the EU do not agree to radical reform.”

MPs backing the group are reported to have met twice in Parliament since the election and MEP supporters are due to hold a meeting in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

Outline plans have been drawn up that say the CfB “support the party’s policy of renegotiation and referendum” but “take an optimistic, globalist view of the UK’s future” and “will discuss how to prepare for a possible ‘out’ campaign”.

Ukip ‘ground war’

Other named members of the group include senior eurosceptic Bernard Jenkin and former shadow frontbencher Julian Lewis.

Newly elected Tories James Cleverly, Tom Pursglove, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and Craig Mackinlay have also joined the group, according to the Telegraph.

Conservative MP John Redwood

The group’s formation comes after the leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, said his party was starting the “ground war” for the campaign to leave the EU.

Mr Farage said he wanted his party to be part of a wider coalition of Labour and Conservative politicians and leading business figures.

‘No influence’

But Rafal Trzaskowski, Poland’s secretary of state for European affairs, said voters must be told the truth about the consequences of leaving the EU.

Asked whether he believes Britons might vote for exit, he said: “It really depends on how the whole thing is depicted by British political parties to the British people – what kind of alternative is painted.”

“If you say you can leave and still be part of the internal market and keep your [second] houses, that you will still be free to travel, that there will be no customs duties, and so on and so forth – but that you will not have to accept free movement of workers, and you will not pay into the EU budget, of course people will vote [to leave] … but this is simply not true,” he told the Observer.

“If Great Britain leaves, it will minimise its role… I think we have to be frank with the British people when we talk about their future in the European Union.

“You cannot keep all the goodies and forget about the costs. Britain will still have to pay into the EU budget, just as the Swiss and Norwegians do.

“It would have no influence over the decisions yet it would have to subscribe to all the rules.”