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Ed Miliband outlines Labour's EU referendum policy | |
(35 minutes later) | |
A future Labour government would call an in/out referendum on the UK's membership of the EU - but only if it was being asked to transfer more powers to Brussels, Ed Miliband has said. | |
In an article for the Financial Times, the Labour leader said his party "strongly believes Britain's future is in the EU". | In an article for the Financial Times, the Labour leader said his party "strongly believes Britain's future is in the EU". |
He also criticised the Conservatives' "damaging obsession" with EU policy. | He also criticised the Conservatives' "damaging obsession" with EU policy. |
He is expected to give more details in a speech on Wednesday. | |
The party has previously backed holding a referendum if it is proposed that further powers are transferred to Brussels. | |
But Mr Miliband has now clarified that this would be an in/out referendum. | |
"This would not just be a referendum on the narrow question of whether to allow a transfer of powers from Britain to Brussels; as we have seen in other countries, such votes are too easily ignored," he wrote. | |
He also criticised Prime Minister David Cameron's promise of an in/out referendum in 2017, which he described as an "arbitrary timetable" ensuring that "a Conservative government would be dominated by an all-consuming and damaging obsession within his party about whether Britain should leave the EU". | |
Mr Miliband argued that the reforms required in the EU can be achieved without a new treaty. | |
In practice, this would mean that an in/out referendum is unlikely to take place under Labour, BBC political editor Nick Robinson said. | |
The coalition has already enshrined in law a so-called referendum lock, promising a vote on whether to transfer further powers to Brussels if the situation arises - but not on whether to leave the EU. | |
Conservative attempts to legislate for an in/out referendum in 2017 have been thwarted by the Liberal Democrats, which party leader and deputy PM Nick Clegg describes as "Britain's only party of in". |