Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Cross-party UK EU exit group launches

by Selina O'Grady and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, London

32 minutes ago


A new cross-party campaign aimed at taking the UK out of the European Union is due to be launched.
Vote Leave is made up of Conservative, Labour and UKIP MPs and donors.
It is the second eurosceptic campaign to launch ahead of a referendum which is due by 2017 at the latest.
The group, whose supporters include Labour's Kate Hoey and UKIP's Douglas Carswell, says it wants to negotiate a new deal based on free trade and friendly co-operation.
Vote Leave, due to be launched on Friday, is funded by people of different party affiliations, such as the City millionaire and Tory donor Peter Cruddas, Labour's biggest private backer John Mills and former UKIP treasurer Stuart Wheeler.
Its core message is about sovereignty, with "take control" the main slogan - it is planning to spend about £20m.
Ms Hoey called for an end to the "supremacy" of EU legislation over UK law, saying: "If we vote to leave, then the £350m we send to Brussels every week can be spent on our priorities like the NHS".

Analysis

By Laura Kuenssberg, BBC political editor
The arguments over whether we really gain or lose economically will be a central strand of the referendum debate, with the government, most of the Labour Party, the SNP, the Liberal Democrats and much of the business world pressing the case that the rewards of being in the EU are much greater than the costs.
But Vote Leave has money, campaign muscle, a plan to build a politically broad-based group, and a clear message.
It is also confident it will end up becoming the official campaign, designated by the Electoral Commission, rather than the campaign Leave.EU that includes the UKIP leader, Nigel Farage and UKIP's multi-millionaire donor, Aaron Banks.
The two groups, Vote Leave and Leave.EU, have had talks and may eventually join forces, but for now they are being run as separate campaigns.
On the other side, the In campaign, which makes the case for the UK's EU membership, is expected to launch early next week.
Read more on Laura Kuenssberg's blog

Another member of Vote Leave, Tory MP Steve Baker, is co-chairman of the Conservatives for Britain group.
He said: "Conservatives for Britain supports the prime minister's attempt to negotiate a fundamentally different relationship with the EU.
"But we also support the creation of a professional cross-party campaign that can fight the referendum if the EU does not give the PM fundamental change."
UKIP's Douglas Carswell said he would be voting for the UK to leave the EU to "end the supremacy of EU law and the British public can take back control".
"That is the safer choice - safer for our democracy and our economy."
Another group promoting an EU exit - Leave.EU - is already running, with a UKIP donor behind it and party leader Nigel Farage playing a prominent role.

EU ambitions

Talks between the two groups over joining forces have not reached any agreement so far.
No date has yet been set for the referendum on Britain's membership of the EU but David Cameron has promised to hold the vote by the end of 2017.
The prime minister has said he will campaign for Britain to remain in the EU if he secures the reforms he wants.
Mr Cameron has not disclosed the full details of what he is seeking but he has indicated that he wants the UK to be able to opt-out from an EU ambition to forge an "ever closer union" of people across Europe.
He will also try to get restrictions on welfare benefits - in particular, tax credits - for migrants and more powers to block or opt out of new EU laws.

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