by Our News Desk

DAVID Cameron took his first step in renegotiating Britain’s membership of the EU yesterday, in what left politicians argue was nothing more than a “charade” designed to protect big-business interests.

The Prime Minister said it would take “patience and tenacity” to reform Britain’s relationship with Brussels.

At summit talks in the Latvian capital Riga he insisted that the sooner the process gets under way, “the better,” but said yesterday’s discussions had “scratched the surface.”

After a series of meetings in the margins with EU counterparts, Mr Cameron told reporters he would not set out deadlines for securing reforms and would not “negotiate in public.”

He said: “We need to address the concerns of the British people. They are not happy with the status quo. And neither am I.

“There’s the concern that we are being driven towards an ever closer union. That may be what some others want, but that is not for us.

“There’s the unnecessary and burdensome EU rules holding our businesses back and stopping them from seizing the enormous potential of the single market.

“And there’s the concern — that I fully share — about the huge increase in people migrating to the UK from Europe and fear that we can do nothing to address this.”

Mr Cameron again refused to rule out campaigning for Britain to leave the EU if his renegotiation efforts fail.

But Communist Party general secretary Rob Griffiths called the “bogus negotiations” nothing more than a “charade” designed to keep Britain in the EU for the benefit of big business.

“The EU will end up giving the government enough bogus concessions to enable Mr Cameron to pretend he drove a hard bargain and succeeded, when really it is big business that has succeeded,” he said.

Among Mr Cameron’s predicted plans are an attempt to alter rules on freedom of movement to allow the government to curb EU migrants’ access to in-work benefits which top up wages, something he has described as an “absolute requirement.”
But Mr Griffiths warned that “the free movement of capital is a far bigger problem for workers.”