DHAKA: David Cameron is to warn European leaders he will ‘think again’ about the UK staying in the EU if his demands for reform are ‘met with a deaf ear’.

The PM will deliver his warning on Tuesday to coincide with a letter to the European Council president setting out the changes he wants for the UK.

The letter to Donald Tusk will mark the start of the UK’s formal re-negotiation of its EU membership.

UKIP said they did not believe Cameron would ever campaign to leave, reports the BBC.

The Conservatives have promised an in-out referendum on the EU by 2017.

In a speech on Tuesday, Cameron will say, ‘If we can’t reach such an agreement (on reforms), and if Britain’s concerns were to be met with a deaf ear, which I do not believe will happen, then we will have to think again about whether this European Union is right for us’.

‘As I have said before - I rule nothing out.’

Cameron will say he is ready to campaign to stay in the EU ‘with all my heart and all my soul’, but only if the terms are right.

He has already said he wants an end to the commitment to ever-closer union, more power for national governments and restrictions on benefits for EU migrants.

The speech will be Cameron’s strongest warning yet that he is prepared to consider life outside the EU if he doesn’t get what he wants, BBC political correspondent Carole Walker said.

BDST: 1554 HRS, Nov 08, 2015
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