A CONSERVATIVE minister has warned that the UK would be "significantly worse off" - at least in the short and medium-term -outside the European Union.
His comments come just hours after the Chancellor suggested that the organisation was holding the economy back.
In a significant hardening of the Tories' position, George Osborne set out his view that the EU was no longer "working" economically for the UK.
But Desmond Swayne, a noted eurosceptic who has previously described Brussels as an "alien and evil empire", warned fellow Tories not to expect life outside the EU to be some kind of "El Dorado".
The International Development Minister, a former aide to David Cameron, suggested that leaving the union would be a "painful process".
He said: "It might well in the long run be more competitive, more prosperous, but we might in the short-medium term be significantly worse off and we'd certainly lose influence."
He added that he supported Mr Cameron's attempts to secure EU reform, amid growing pressure on the Tories from the eurosceptic Ukip. "The Prime Minister believes he can make arrangements on our continued membership of the EU palatable to me, and I want to give him his head," he said. The Conservatives are expected to lose a second Westminster by-election in as many months to Ukip on November 20. The contest comes at a difficult time for the party over Europe.
Last week ministers were surprised when the UK was presented with a shock bill for an extra £1.7 billion from Brussels.
Earlier this week, Mr Cameron came under more pressure when his strongest ally in Europe, Angela Merkel, reportedly ruled out his plans for reforming the free movement of labour.
The Prime Minister insists restrictions are needed in order to reduce migration from the EU to the UK.
His woes were increased by new economic forecasts yesterday downgrading the prospects for a number of European economies.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article