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UK Prime Minister David Cameron will take the “highly unusual” step of publishing draft legislation on May 14, committing the government to hold a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU by 2017.
The move comes after the PM came under huge pressure from Conservative MPs to write his January pledge to give the British people a vote on the country’s relationship with the EU into law, after it did not feature in last week’s Queen’s Speech.
The plan was revealed late on Monday on the sidelines of Cameron’s meeting with Barack Obama, in which the US president backed the PM’s efforts to renegotiate Britain’s EU relationship.
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It also comes ahead of a parliamentary vote called by Conservative MPs criticising the fact the referendum did not feature in the Queen’s speech.
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