BRITAIN: British Conservative leader Mr Michael Howard said yesterday that Britain should reject the proposed EU constitution and campaign for a more flexible Europe which transfers powers back to national governments and "looks outward" beyond the borders of its member-states.
He accused other parties of being "defeatist" in arguing Britain had the choice between accepting Europe as it is or quitting altogether.
"Britain's interests are best served by staying in Europe - but by using our influence to make the EU confront its failings and become more tolerant," said Mr Howard.
"That is what the mainstream majority in Britain want - and that is what a Conservative government will give them."
He warned Tory supporters against voting for the UK Independence Party, which wants Britain to withdraw from the EU.
Mr Howard denounced UKIP as "extreme", and said Tories represented the "mainstream majority" who want Britain to remain a member but reverse the drift towards a single EU state.
Prominent UKIP candidate Mr Robert Kilroy-Silk said Mr Howard's comments showed he was panicking amid signs that the anti-EU party is making inroads into Tory support in the June 10th elections to the European Parliament.
He called on euro-sceptic Conservative MPs to "come out of the closet" and follow four Tory peers in voicing support for UKIP's aspirations.
A poll commissioned by UKIP yesterday suggested as many as 54 per cent of British people would like to quit the EU if Britain could negotiate a free trade agreement with remaining member-states, he said.
Mr Howard said voters had a "clear choice" at the European elections. At one extreme was the UKIP and at the other extreme were Labour and the Liberal Democrats - "who want to transfer even more power from Britain to Brussels, setting Europe on the path to a single European State".
Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw said Mr Howard was "paying the price for pandering to europhobes inside and outside his own party".