Peter Lilley tells Boston and Skegness Conservatives’ biggest event yet: “In our own country we’ve got to have the freedom to pass our own laws”
Boston and Skegness Conservative Candidate Matt Warman hosts Peter Lilley MP at the constituency’s first major 2015 event
Former Conservative Party Deputy Leader Peter Lilley addressed a capacity audience at the Boston and County Club on Friday, telling the largest event the local Association has yet held that “We’ve got to get back power to govern ourselves and establish that power can come back from Europe.”
Speaking at a heavily oversubscribed dinner for more than 100 activists and supporters, former Shadow Chancellor and leadership candidate Mr Lilley argued that Britain’s value to the European Union was such that other nations would make meaningful concessions to keep the UK in the Union when Prime Minister David Cameron offers the UK a membership referendum in 2017.
“Both supporters and opponents of the EU exaggerate the economic benefits or harm for the UK of membership,” he said. “I’m relaxed economically about leaving or remaining in Europe, but it matters an awful lot to the Eurozone that we stay in. In Germany and elsewhere they don’t want to lose us and they will make concessions to keep us in.”
Mr Lilley added that “We’ve got to get back power to govern ourselves and establish that power can come back from Europe. Once we’ve established that principle, we’ll be able to get back to what we feel instinctively in our guts: that in our own country we’ve got to have the freedom to pass our own laws.”
Matt Warman, Boston and Skegness’s Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate, described Mr Lilley’s speech as “inspirational”, adding: “The only Party that is proposing to fix our broken relationship with Europe is the Conservative Party, which is also the only party to offer voters a referendum on our membership. We will make sure that Britain has the labour required to work on the land in and around this constituency, but we will also make sure that only those who have paid into our benefits system are entitled to take anything out of it.”
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Notes to editors:
The Rt Hon Peter Lilley is MP for Hitchin and Harpenden.
Matt Warman is available for comment on 07748 963545, or via campaign manager Steph.Dickens@mattwarman.net