GETTY Northern Ireland minister Theresa Villiers has called the EU 'unreformable'

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Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers launched the scathing attack during a Vote Leave campaign event in Glasgow yesterday. The former Tory MEP branded Brussels as “unreformable” and the UK joining up to the bureaucratic union in the 1970s was an “admission of defeat”.

GETTY Villiers, second from left, and fellow top Tory Eurosceptics

She said: "The six years I spent in Brussels as an MEP...those six years convinced me of one very clear thing - that the European Union is unreformable. "It is, and always has been and always will be, primarily a political project.

GETTY A UK flag in the European Parliament chambers

"It is all about creating a country called Europe. However hard we in this country work, whatever we do, whatever we say, we can never change that. "Joining the EU in the 70s was in many ways an admission of defeat based on the perception that Britain was destined for chronic decline." She added: "We can stand on our own two feet - it is time to become a self-governing democracy once again."

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