Supporters of EU membership have failed to make the positive case for Europe, according to the Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson, who also says Jeremy Corbyn’s equivocal stance on the issue is “risible”.
In her first significant intervention in the Europe debate, Davidson will tell an audience in Brussels on Tuesday morning: “I hope that we will use this referendum to outline the positive future that a reformed EU can bring. Too often, collectively, we have failed to make the positive case about EU membership.
“We shouldn’t simply treat the EU as a dead weight, with the process of reform only being to lessen the negative impact it has upon on us. We should also be outlining the prize that awaits us if we get EU reform right.”
Supporting David Cameron’s decision to hold a referendum, she will add: “I will be backing our national interest and urging Britain to stay within that reformed EU. I campaigned for Scotland to stay part of a wider union. And I believe Britain should stay part of a wider union too.”
During last year’s independence referendum campaign the pro-union Better Together, which included Davidson’s Conservatives, was heavily criticised for failing to make the positive case for remaining part of the UK.
Davidson will also scorn Corbyn’s “anti-market” position on Europe. The Labour leader ended initial uncertainty last week by declaring that the party would campaign for the UK to stay in the EU in the forthcoming referendum, whatever the outcome of the renegotiation being sought by Cameron.
Davidson will say: “While the European question isn’t as big a driver as nationalisation, quitting Nato or creating unlimited benefits, to [the Labour party] the European free market isn’t an opportunity for our country, it’s a threat.
“We need to make it clear from the outset, this leftwing anti-market position is a risible proposition which doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. And do I hope there are enough sensible people left within the Labour party who now have the courage to speak up against it.”
Speaking at an event hosted by the New Direction thinktank, Davidson will say the ongoing financial crisis and the influx of refugees are straining the EU to breaking point.
“The European Union has faced and is facing some of its most difficult times as we speak. The financial crisis exposed the faultlines with the euro. The current migration crisis has exposed the faultlines with the Schengen agreement.
“It is hard to contest the point made by some that the EU is a fair-weather union – one which works fine when times are good, but which has no durability when the going gets tough. But I find myself falling on the side of those who believe the union can – indeed must – find a way to work.”
She will say campaigners must not lose sight of the economic benefits of being part of the EU. “I want what is good for Scottish jobs. Not an EU which constantly seeks to interfere in our daily lives and which is seen by people as a meddlesome burden on the world, but an EU which expands the single market in services and is hunting the world for trade deals which will help our local Scottish firms capture more global share.”
