David Cameron to promise Brits a vote on leaving the EU

British Prime Minister David Cameron chats during a roundtable meeting at the EU Headquarters on December 13, 2012, in Brussels. / Getty Images

LONDON Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to offer British citizens a vote on leaving the European Union if his party wins the next election, a move which could trigger alarm among fellow member states.

Cameron will be making his long-awaited speech on the United Kingdom's future relationship with Europe on Wednesday. It was postponed last week due to the hostage crisis in Algeria.

He will acknowledge that public disillusionment with the EU is "at an all-time high," using his speech in central London to say that the terms of Britain's membership in the bloc should be revised and the country's citizens should have a say.

The announcement, coming after months of build-up around the contents of Cameron's speech, could placate increasingly anti-Europe elements of the prime minister's party but further isolate Britain diplomatically and from trade partners.

Cameron will propose Wednesday that the Conservative Party renegotiate the U.K.'s relationship with the European Union if it wins the next general election, expected in 2015.

"Once that new settlement has been negotiated, we will give the British people a referendum with a very simple in or out choice to stay in the EU on these new terms. Or come out altogether," Cameron will say, according to excerpts of his speech released in advance. "It will be an in-out referendum."

The stated possibility of a referendum is expected to further rattle business leaders and frustrate other EU member states currently focused on stemming the euro zone debt crisis.

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Already, speculation over a vote on leaving the EU has prompted a chorus of concern from around the world, stressing the importance of the U.K.'s presence in the bloc and warning about the economic consequences of a British exit.

Even the U.S., which normally stays out of disputes among EU states, waded into the debate.

The White House said last week President Barack Obama told Cameron in a phone call that "the United States values a strong U.K. in a strong European Union."

Cameron will say Wednesday that he envisions a "new" EU built on five principles: competitiveness; flexibility; power flowing back to, not just away from, member states; democratic accountability; and fairness.

While he will reiterate his view that Britain should stay in the EU, the prime minister will concede that "democratic consent for the EU in Britain is now wafer thin."

Taking a direct swipe at those who have warned that raising the possibility of a referendum has created uncertainty for business, Cameron will say that questions about EU membership are "already there and won't go away."

But he will caution against those seeking to hold a vote immediately, saying it would be wrong to hold a referendum "before we have had a chance to put the relationship right" and before the euro zone emerges from crisis.

The timeline he will lay out mostly hinges on a Conservative victory in the next general election. Still, legislation will be drafted before 2015 so that if his party wins, it can be introduced and passed quickly enough to ensure a vote could be held "in the first half" of the next Parliament, Cameron will say.

The Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats after an inconclusive 2010 election. Pegging the possibility of a vote to an electoral win could be a gamble to appease increasingly vocal Conservative euroskeptics and stem the stream of voters who have jumped ship to the UK Independence Party, which advocates EU withdrawal.

Opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband fired a salvo ahead of the speech, saying it would define Cameron as a "weak prime minister, being driven by his party."

[fed-up-uk]

Cameron promised the british people a vote on the eu before he won the electon in 2010. Cameron offering the british one now is only secure the next general election in 2015, and this is because of the rise of UKIP. The Tories are too scared that they will lose many of their seats in the next election and give Labour an outright majortiy that he needs to say something to keep his pary the largest in the House of Commons.

Although Baroness Thatcher was for the common market she was not for the EU which is taking away the soverignity of each member state by being able to pass laws which cannot be repealed by national governments.

Cameron will never actually give the British a vote because it would stop him from getting a job in brussels after he has left parliment. The British people deserve a vote because of the fact that the UK is a democracy and it is their democratic right to have one.

The British are against the EU because it is taking away their national identity which is something that they are proud of. They are proud of their heritige, history and customs which they have gained over the past two thousand years, and they want to be in charge of their future and not some unelected body in belgium telling them what they can and cant do.

[p_syrus]

This is nothing by cynical calculated political posturing from Cameron. The hard truth is that Britain has no future apart from that of Europe.

Even Cameron understands that. He may likely believe he can use such a threaat to leverage concessions from Brussels. As he is not a particularly principled politician and quite clearly enamored of his own "cleverness" in excess of its actual value this strategy may well blow up in his face.

Should it do so it is unlikely his reputation will be treated kindly either by future generations of Britons or by historians who chronicle the future of Britain.