Nigel Farage has already found something about the EU referendum to get annoyed at

The Ukip leader has hit out about the question

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), enjoys a pint of beer (AFP/Getty)

Nigel Farage has hit out at the Government’s plan to make staying in the EU the ‘Yes’ option in Britain’s forthcoming referendum.

The Ukip leader said reports that the Government would phrase the vote question “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?” suggested he was preparing for the worst.

“It is a simple straightforward, unambiguous question. That much is clear,” Mr Farage said in a statement.

“However that Cameron is opting to give the pro-EU side the positive 'Yes' suggests strongly that his negotiations are so much fudge. He has already decided which way he wants the answer to be given, without a single power repatriated”

The PM has said he will try to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s EU membership and then hold an in-out vote after to confirm the new settlement.

The government has fast-tracked its EU referendum bill through parliament this year which will give David Cameron the option of holding it this year rather than next year.

He will have to negotiate a number of obstacles to declare success in his negotiations, however.

David Cameron has said stopping benefit for EU migrants would be a red line in negotiations, but a Downing Street spokesperson has previously admitted that “treaty change is required” for such amendments to take place.

If correct, this could prove a problem in that the French government has explicitly ruled out treaty change and said any attempt to do so would be “doomed to failure”.

“It has to be done without amending the treaties. We will not accept any reconsideration of our basic principles, like freedom of movement,” Harlem Désir, the country’s Europe minister, told the website EurActiv.

Since Mr Désir’s statement France and Germany are reported to have agreed a new plan for closer eurozone political union in such a way as to avoid reopening treaty negotiations.

The foreign secretary Philip Hammond warned earlier today that Britain would vote to leave the EU unless European leaders agreed to the “substantial package of reform” demanded by the prime minister.