DHAKA: British Prime Minister David Cameron has called his referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU for 23 June, after the cabinet agreed to campaign to stay in.

Speaking from outside Downing Street, the prime minister said leaving the EU would ‘threaten our economic and national security’.

‘We are approaching one of the biggest decisions this country will face in our lifetimes: whether to remain in a reformed EU or to leave. The choice goes to the heart of the kind of country we want to be and the future we want for our children,’ he said, reports The Guardian.

‘I do not love Brussels. I love Britain. I am the first to say there are many ways the EU needs to improve. The task of reforming Europe does not end with yesterday’s agreement. I will never say our country could not survive outside Europe... That is not the question. The question is will we be safer, stronger and better off working together in a reformed Europe or out on our own.’

Cameron said he knew there would be many passionate arguments over the months ahead and cabinet ministers would be free to campaign on either side of the debate.

‘You will decide and whatever your decision I will do my best to deliver it,’ he added.

The prime minister will now go to parliament to on Monday to begin the process of calling the referendum, leaving around four months for campaigning.

He made the announcement after an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday morning, which suspended collective responsibility to allow eurosceptic ministers to start making their cases for Brexit.

At the gathering in Downing Street, which lasted around two hours, the majority of the cabinet agreed to back the deal agreed in Brussels by Cameron with 27 other EU leaders reforming Britain’s relationship with the rest of the bloc.

BDST: 1902 HRS, FEB 20, 2016
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