Tories `want to pull out of Europe'

THE TORY party was accused last night of wanting to pull Britain out of the European Union after party chairman Michael Ancram appeared to back calls to "renegotiate" membership of the EU.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats condemned Mr Ancram's comments, just days after Baroness Thatcher said that joining the EU had been an "absolute disaster". In a rare joint statement, Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, and Menzies Campbell, the foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said that talk of renegotiation was a clear code for withdrawal.

Mr Ancram yesterday appeared to support motions due to be put before the party conference by a clutch of Thatcherites in October. It emerged over the weekend that the right-wingers, bolstered by Lady Thatcher's remarks at a dinner party last week, want to harden the Tory stance on the issue.

Renegotiation has long been the symbolic totem of the most hardline Eurosceptics, knowing other member states will not agree to Tory demands, so the UK will have to pull out.

Some 11 Tory frontbenchers have signed a Eurosceptic lobby group's demands for renegotiation or withdrawal.

Mr Ancram refused to disown Lady Thatcher's comment or to dismiss suggestions that renegotiation was one means of pulling Britain out of the EU. The whole history of the EU or community, has been renegotiation, he said.

"Maastricht was renegotiation, Amsterdam was renegotiation," he told BBC TV's Breakfast with Frost.

"Nothing is fixed in stone and renegotiation is part of the process of ensuring that Europe is always up to date but also that Europe is serving its members in the way that is best and we take the view that we don't want Europe becoming any more integrated.

"If there is a tendency to do that, that is an area in which we will want to make sure that we have a very strong voice to ensure that it doesn't happen."

Mr Cook and Mr Campbell said it was "disgraceful" that William Hague and Mr Ancram had refused to disown Lady Thatcher's comments.

They called on John Maples, the shadow Foreign Secretary, "to slap down Lady Thatcher's outdated prejudices and state once and for all that there is no room at the top of British politics for those who think Britain should leave Europe.

"Talk of renegotiation won't do either. It has always been code for withdrawal and still is. It is vital for Britain's national interest and our influence in the world that this issue is put behind us immediately."