Tory Eurosceptics say EU referendum will not be seen as legitimate if PM does not suspend ministerial activity in runup to poll

Leading Conservative Eurosceptics have warned David Cameron that the referendum on UK membership of the EU will not be seen as legitimate if he presses ahead with plans to relax the rules on what the government can spend and announce in the 28 days leading up to it.



Owen Paterson, the former environment secretary, appealed to Cameron to back down ahead of a vote on the issue in the Commons on Tuesday, and said he hoped Labour would back the plan for a 28-day period of suspension of ministerial activity – so-called “purdah” – the party had itself introduced in government.

Labour has not yet decided how it will vote.

Paterson said the referendum would be seen to be rigged and not legitimate without it. “If the whole thing is skewed right up to polling day it won’t be seen to be fair,” he said.

Paterson urged Cameron to back down, saying: “We don’t want a row”, adding that the 28-day purdah period had worked in the general election.



He said: “It is unacceptable that there will be no limit to local government, national government or above all European government agencies spending money sending information to citizens and that is going to skew the whole thing,” he argued.

He told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: “The British people have a very, very strong sense of fairness. They will detect that this is being rigged and what worries me – and this is absolutely a really, really heartfelt plea to the government – it worries me, if this is seen to be rigged, if the people don’t sense it’s fair whatever the result, it won’t be seen as legitimate and this whole issue will fester further.”

Paterson, who is leading the 110-strong Conservatives for Britain group of Eurosceptics, insisted the group was not committed to an “out” vote, but wanted David Cameron’s renegotiation strategy to get a better deal for the UK. He revealed the group contained cabinet members, but it had been agreed their names would not be identified at this stage.

“It’s quite clear we give him time to get a deal but we do prepare in case the deal is not satisfactory,” he said. But he added a successful negotiation would in effect require Britain only to have a trade relationship with the EU, and no political or judicial connection.

Paterson said he did not just want to see Britain being free to prevent EU migrants receiving tax credits for four years. He would also like to see a parliamentary red card system that would allow MPs in the Commons to reject legislation.

He said the EU was leaving the UK since the EU was effectively setting up a new country in order to make the euro work. He added he did not want to be in a club where a Swedish former psychiatric nurse [Cecilia Malmström] was in charge of the EU’s trade negotiations, saying it would be better to have a Briton representing the UK at the World Trade Organisation.

He added that cabinet ministers after the negotiation should be free to stay in the cabinet and make the case for leaving the EU if that was what they wanted to do.

Speaking on the same programme, Lord Heseltine, the pro-European former cabinet minister, urged Eurosceptics to behave calmly during the negotiations, adding it would strengthen Cameron’s hand if they did so.

He added: “The interesting thing is that immigration is at the top of public concern. The issue of Europe I think is ninth. The two have become interwoven. I have no doubt at all that the prime minister was right to decide that he was going to renegotiate the issue about immigration. It’s very complex for various reasons but he is right to do it,” he added.

“One of the things I find most interesting about the immigration one, is the way in which we have become extraordinary dependent in all sorts of ways – particularly the health service – on people from overseas.”