Britain never really fit in with the rest of Europe - Boris Johnson: leaving Europe a shot in the arm for democracy

I never thought of Great Britain as European, I don't think Churchill or Thatcher did either. m/r

Boris Johnson: leaving Europe a shot in the arm for democracy - Telegraph

British democracy would receive "a shot in the arm" if the UK left the European Union, Boris Johnson has said.

By Tim Ross, Political Correspondent

09 May 2013

Voters would feel they had regained control over their own destiny if Britain became fully independent from Brussels, the Mayor of London said.

Mr Johnson warned that the country must be ready to "walk away" from Europe if David Cameron failed to negotiate better terms of membership.

Mr Johnson's comments will fuel the increasingly fevered debate inside the Conservative Party about European policy, which has flared after the success of Ukip in last week's local elections.

The Mayor's intervention, at a conference of international business leaders in London, followed an attack from the Prime Minister on Right-wing "pessimists" who believed Britain's relations with Europe could never change.

Mr Cameron is under pressure from his backbench MPs to call a vote in the Commons before the 2015 election on a Bill allowing a referendum on EU membership.

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