British PM in pursuit of EU changes as ‘Brexit’ gaining momentum

As the British prime minister is pushing EU leaders to improve London's membership terms before a referendum, a new opinion poll suggests a majority of Britons want to leave the bloc.

The ORB poll indicated that opposition to the EU is growing in the UK with 43% Britons want to leave against 36% of those still in favor of staying with the 28-nation bloc.

According to pollsters, if 21% undecided voters are taken out of the survey, 54% Britons actually want ‘Brexit’, up from 51% a year ago.

The ORB poll indicates that the 2017 referendum could be far closer than some politicians had assumed. "Despite the impending vote on Brexit, significantly more people report to have felt further removed from Europe over the last twelve months than closer to it."

The survey comes as Prime Minister David Cameron is reaching out to his European colleagues to push them on the UK’s terms. Cameron who is on a visit to Germany, argued that London's proposals would benefit the bloc and the UK both.

"We believe that all these issues can be dealt with. The discussions are going well," Cameron said in Wildbad Kreuth, Bavaria.

Some analysts believe the British government must clarify to the public before the skepticism becomes wider. "If the Prime Minister is to avoid disaster on his watch someone needs to start convincing the public very soon on why we should remain a part of the EU," Johnny Heald, managing director of ORB International, told Reuters.

“This is the fact that we see an increase in the number of people prepared to vote for Britain to leave the European Union despite skepticism about the process which David Cameron has begun. What will happen that he [Cameron] will come back with a package which he creates and hyped up that says a major difference in terms of Britain’s membership but in fact nothing very much will change”, Chris Bambery, a London-based journalist and broadcaster told Press TV.  

According to Bambery, the European Union is an undemocratic institution which has repeatedly warned against a referendum going against it. He calls it a sign of weakness on the part of Cameron to say that the government can take whatever position it wishes on the referendum.

"I think Cameron hasn’t a very difficult job in trying to convince the public that why Britain should leave the EU. The first thing is that he made the big issue about migration inside the EU and the citizens of the EU having the right to come to his country. There is no way that is going to be changed that has made very clear by every country of the bloc. Secondly, there is an economic argument that makes people more skeptical”, he concluded.      

The EU membership has long been a contentious topic in Britain. Pro-Europeans warn that Britain’s exit would shake the Union to its core. They say the move would not only hurt the British economy but could possibly trigger the break-up of the kingdom by prompting another Scottish independence vote. Opponents of EU membership say Britain would prosper outside the bloc.

The Britain will be pressing for his demands on economic governance, competitiveness, immigration, and sovereignty at the EU summit on Feb. 18-19.  

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