The Chancellor George Osborne travels to Germany on Monday to meet with Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister and Sigmar Gabriel, the vice-chancellor as part of the Conservative government’s plans to push changes with the UK’s relationship with the EU.

The demands proposed by David Cameron, which is expected to include a new “red card” system to allow national parliaments to stop and scrap unwanted EU directives, hopes to strengthen support of voters to back the continued membership of the UK within the EU in the upcoming referendum planned for the end of 2017.

Mr Osborne, who recently described the UK and German economies as “the beating heart of Europe”, hopes to counter fears that remaining in the EU will leave London neglected in financial policy making.

In a statement, the chancellor stated; “the future holds challenges for our economies. We must cut debt and boost productivity. To do this, we need a strong EU, fit for today’s challenges and working for the benefit of all 28 member states,”

Despite results of a recent survey suggesting Theresa May was the new public choice to take on the “Brexit” campaign, the Home Secretary has recently stated;

“There are some people who say you should be in at all costs, there are people who say you should be out at all costs. Actually I say let’s do this renegotiation, let’s see what reform we can bring about as a result of that renegotiation and then put it to the British people. That’s what we’ve promised people”.

Nigel Farage responded to the results of the Survation poll, where Farage followed May as most suited to back the official out campign, stating he would be “absolutely delighted” if the Home secretary took on the out campaign.

British support over the the UK’s membership of the 28 member party bloc has varied over the past year. Despite support for the UK withdrawing from the EU falling to one of its lowest levels in June of this year, the gap has significantly narrowed since September.

 

Safiya Bashir on 02/11/2015