Britain should get out of the EU, says Lord Healey
Former Chancellor Lord Denis Healey today argued that Britain didn't need to be in the European Union and the public would leave if they had the choice.
But, during an exclusive interview with the Express & Star, he said Labour was wrong to tell its MPs to abstain from next week's crunch vote over whether Britain should have a referendum on its place in the European Union.
Lord Healey, who served as Chancellor as part of the Labour government of the turbulent late 1970s, said Ed Miliband should give his MPs a free vote next Friday.
The 95-year-old, who sought a multi-billion pound bailout for Britain from the International Monetary Fund when he was Chancellor, said: "I don't think we need to be in the European Union. We could still trade with Europe without being members of the organisation."
Asked if Ed Miliband was wrong to call for abstentions from the vote on a private members' Bill to get David Cameron's promised referendum enshrined in law, he said: "It's better for all parties to have a free vote. It's an issue on which individuals rather than parties should take a decision."
He said he would personally vote to leave and added: "I think the public would leave. It's the feeling that you're not taking your own decisions."
Speaking at his Sussex home the peer, who spent 40 years as an MP, talked about how he believed Ed Miliband had turned out to not be as bad a leader as he had feared but that he lacked the 'charisma' of his brother David, who he beat in the contest for the position in 2010.
He also predicted that the coalition government will 'not last much longer' and urged current Tory Chancellor George Osborne to cut more from the defence budget in order to avoid further cuts in welfare.
Read the full two-page exclusive interview with Lord Healey in today's Express & Star
