The Telegraph kindly carried articles from me on the launch of Conservatives for Britain last June and shortly before Christmas. I include links below; my articles on the EU stretching back to 2007 may be found here.
The launch article was Conservatives will stand up for Britain if the EU lets us down, published on the evening of 6 June 2015:
Our duty to the citizens of Europe is to ensure prosperity and continued peace. We must remain free to trade with Europe. Few think otherwise and there is no need to scaremonger about market access. Britain does not want closer political union with Europe and we should not allow ourselves to think the two are connected.
Free trade requires an absence of government restraint, not unified government. As the Prime Minister illustrated, the European Union is diverse: we should embrace that diversity with a flexible relationship.
We believe free nation states should pursue together the ideal of international co-operation. It is time for powers to return to states. It is time for national parliaments to assert their democratic legitimacy and accountability.
We want a common market with the world, not a common European government without the consent of the people within its jurisdiction.
On 15 December, shortly before the December 2015 European Council, I set out Why David Cameron should lead the campaign to leave the EU:
This will be a defining week for the Prime Minister and the future of our country. He will be heading to Brussels to try to get a better deal for Britain from the EU.
If EU politicians do not agree, then I believe he should announce this week that he will join the growing cross-party campaign to vote to leave the EU.
(NB: The correction on the second article is wrong. The relationship between the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is explored in the Commons European Scrutiny Committee report, The application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in the UK: a state of confusion, to which I referred when writing the original. As the title of that report indicates, there is indeed a considerable state of confusion, leading to the mistaken correction…)
