Portillo vows to defy EU

Michael Portillo, the Secretary of State for Employment, last night launched one of his most withering attacks yet on "Brussels bureaucrats" and vowed never to implement the European Union's Social Chapter on workers' rights.

Addressing a Conservative conference in Birmingham, he said: "Brussels is a city packed with people who think they know what's best for us. People who have never created a job in their lives."

Mr Portillo said British sovereignty must be defended. "Unlike Britain, there are few countries in the EU who in the last 60 years have not lost their democracy either to foreign invasion or domestic insurrection." He said that British tradition must be upheld at all costs.