Nicola Sturgeon has said she will not share a platform with David Cameron or other Conservatives to help secure a “yes” vote in the EU referendum.
The SNP leader is strongly in favour of remaining in the EU and has demanded that each nation in the UK have an effective veto over exiting, so Scotland could not be dragged out of the EU against its will by English voters.
But she said she would not campaign alongside the Prime Minister, Chancellor or other Conservatives in order to stay in the EU.
“I have got no plans to share platforms with David Cameron or George Osborne or anybody else in the Conservative Party,” she told Sky News’s Murnaghan show.
Ms Sturgeon said she would make “a very strong and very positive case for our membership of the European Union”.
“There a number of reforms that we would argue for, but crucially I think it’s right we do that from within the European Union because exit or threatening to exit the European Union is damaging to our economy, to potential investment and to jobs,” she said.
“What is dangerous about the approach David Cameron is taking right now is he is taking the UK perilously close to the exit door and I think that’s wrong.”
But John Redwood MP, the eurosceptic Conservative backbencher, said that “yes” campaigners were undermining Cameron’s chances of achieving EU reform by insisting they will stay in come what may.
John Redwood MP said ministers may have to resign to campaign for a ‘no’ vote
“If people keep on saying they are going to stay in come what may, it completely undermines the Prime Minister when he is trying to achieve what I am suggesting; trying to get back control for Britain and the British people over things like border and migration that really matter,” he told Murnaghan.
He said he would not campaign for a “yes” vote unless Mr Cameron could achieve a “really good deal”.
“I don’t wish to stay in the current European Union, it doesn’t work for Britain and it doesn’t work for them either,” he said.
Ministers may have to resign in order to campaign with their conscience on the referendum, he added.
“Of course they should be free to campaign as they see fit and they will be free to campaign as they see fit, the only issue is whether asked to leave their government positions before they do it or not.
“What is the point of being a minister if you are charged with getting immigration down but the European Union won’t let you do it? If you’re faced with that situation the only honest thing to do is to campaign for a change in the arrangement or to campaign for out.”
Should Britain stay in or get out of the EU? Polling since 1977
Ipsos MORI
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