Cameron’s EU speech gets relocated (again)

London Evening Standard/London

David Cameron’s “jinxed” speech on Europe will take place in London tomorrow instead of on the Continent, Downing Street sources said yesterday.

The landmark address will pave the way for a referendum on Britain’s relationship with the EU, Foreign Secretary William Hague has made clear.

Hague confirmed that Cameron is thinking of calling a referendum, though not until the next Parliament.

“The European Union is changing to such a degree and will change over the next few years to such a degree, that the fresh consent of the British people is required,” said Hague.

Tory Right-wingers are hopeful that a public “no” vote on new EU membership terms could trigger moves to quit the EU altogether, although this has not been confirmed by Downing Street.

Cameron’s attempt to reunite Conservatives around a clearer, Eurosceptic position was given a boost when former defence secretary Liam Fox, a leading sceptic, said he was “broadly satisfied” with what he understood to be the contents of the speech.

“If that is the speech that is finally delivered, a great many of us will think that it’s a speech that we’ve been waiting a long time for any prime minister to deliver,” he said.

The prime minister’s long-awaited address has suffered from delays and changes of location since it was first mooted in September.

Cameron planned to make the speech last month but it was pushed back because of the EU budget row. He pencilled in tomorrow at The Hague, but that date was also scrapped after Germans protested that it clashed with the anniversary of the Franco-German peace treaty.

It was then brought forward to last Friday in Amsterdam but cancelled with hours to go because of the hostage crisis in Algeria.

Extracts released in advance show that Cameron will warn that Britain could “drift towards the exit” from the EU unless there is real reform in Brussels.