EU referendum vital to future, says Cameron

British prime minister

David Cameron

has narrowed his options for staying on in power after the next election, insisting

he would not lead a minority government unable to guarantee a 2017 referendum on the UK's European Union membership.

Mr Cameron is under pressure to buttress the Conservatives' vote in this month's European Parliament elections, which could see the party fall to third in the rankings for the first time in a UK-wide election.

Questioned about the prospects for a referendum in 2017, Mr Cameron said: “Whatever the outcome, people should be under no doubt I will not become PM unless I can guarantee that we will hold that referendum.”

Leadership role
Pressed to declare if that included ruling out a minority Conservative administration, he said: "I couldn't answer the question more clearly. I won't become PM unless I can guarantee that that in/out referendum will be held."

Equally, he pledged the referendum would be held in 2017, even if the negotiations he demands with EU partners have not finished by then.

"We will have the referendum whether or not I have successfully negotiated," Mr Cameron told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show. "You cannot hold people in an organisation against their will . . . It's right to have this renegotiation, to have this referendum, and to let the people have their say."

Mr Cameron’s pledges are a rehearsal of ones that will be made in the run-up to the 2015 general election, where Conservatives fear that UK Independence Party candidates could scupper their chances of winning power even if Ukip itself fails to get any of its people elected to Commons seats.

Ukip attack
However, Ukip leader Nigel Farage dismissed Mr Cameron's commitments, reminding voters he had promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty before he came to power in 2010.

Privately, Conservatives believe the prospects for changes to EU rules will become significantly easier after the European elections, which are expected to see a dramatic rise in right-wing, anti-immigration, anti-EU integration sentiment across the EU states.

The UK asserted its rights to limit workers from Bulgaria and Romania after they joined, but it was unable to extend the curbs beyond January 1st this year, under EU rules.