IDS speaks in Prague on EU
Iain Duncan Smith is expected to use a speech in the Czech capital Prague today to counter claims that he wants to pull the UK out of Europe.
The opposition leader announced his intention to return to the issue of Europe earlier this year after spending the first part of his leadership playing down the subject to avoid Conservative divisions. As such, this is his first speech as leader specifically focused on the subject of Europe.
He is likely to profess support for the EU, and the UK’s membership of it, so long as it is a union of sovereign states rather than a ‘united states of Europe’. He may also call on the EU to limit its focus to the single market, as others in his party have done.
However, Mr Duncan Smith, who is widely known as a Euro sceptic, and who caused trouble for John Major’s government on the issue of the Maastricht treaty, is expected to repeat calls for a referendum on the new constitution.
If he does, then his opponents will continue to feel able to accuse him of wanting to withdraw from Europe, as rejection of the new treaty, which he would undoubtedly campaign for, would mean the UK not being signatory to the European Union’s new single treaty.
The new constitution is being designed to simplify the treaties that make up the European Union in response to concerns that the present system would be unworkable once countries like the Czech Republic swell its membership to 25.
Mr Duncan Smith may be concerned about any perception that he would pull out of the single market, which is the source of most of the UK’s trade, and on which the government claims millions of jobs depend. He will also be aware of the investment made by UK companies in cities like Prague in response to the prospect of free access to their markets once in the EU.
