London mayor Boris Johnson urges EU vote before next election

Boris Johnson intensified the pressure on David Cameron today by calling for a vote on Britain’s place in Europe before the next general election.

Mr Cameron is to attempt to unite his party on European policy in a major speech next month. He is expected to promise to include a referendum on the UK’s place in the EU in the Tories’ 2015 election manifesto.

Under that timescale, the vote might not take place for another five years, but the London Major challenged the PM to treat the issue with more urgency.

He BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show he would like to see the public given the chance to vote before 2015, although he did not expect it to happen. “We have never had a popular vote since 1975 on a European question. I would like to be able to campaign for a single market and the withdrawal from a lot of the nonsensical policies,” he said.

“I think it would be a good idea if they did it before 2015.”