Referendum would turn UK’s presidency of EU into a ‘farce’

Charles Grant, director of the thinktank the Centre for European Reform, said that, if a Tory government were to recommend staying in the EU during a referendum campaign in 2017, then it might be possible to hold a reasonably successful British presidency. But if a Tory government were recommending withdrawal, the problems would be legion.“You could have a situation where the UK as president was trying to prevent agreement and its ministers then blamed the French and Germans to strengthen the case for us leaving.”