UK’s Cameron says he will not rule out EU exit

British Prime Minister David Cameron will issue a dramatic warning to fellow EU leaders this week that he might back Britain leaving the EU unless other European leaders agree to his demands for reform of the bloc.

Cameron is due to outline British demands for renegotiation of its European Union membership terms in a latter to the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, to be published on Tuesday. In a speech the same day, he will say that if no deal can be reached, he could back a British exit when an in/out referendum is held before the end of 2017.

According to reports, Cameron will seek a four-year ban on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits after entering the UK, an exemption from any closer EU integration, and more powers for national governments to block EU legislation.

“If we can't reach such an agreement, and if Britain's concerns were to be met with a deaf ear, which I do not believe will happen, then we will have to think again about whether this European Union is right for us. As I have said before – I rule nothing out,” Cameron will say, according to the media reports.

While Cameron has never ruled out campaigning to leave the EU if he failed to secure any agreement, media said the tone of the speech was his strongest assertion to date that the status quo was unacceptable.

However, in his speech Cameron will also repeat that he wanted Britain to remain in the 28-nation bloc, which it joined in 1973, and was confident a deal could be struck which would suit Britain and its partners.

Cameron will insist that he has “every confidence that we will achieve an agreement that works for Britain and works for our European partners. And if and when we do so, as I said three years ago, I will campaign to keep Britain inside a reformed European Union – campaign for it with all my heart and all my soul, because that will be unambiguously in our national interest.”