EU referendum: Leaving EU a 'leap in the dark' says Cameron

By BBC News

David Cameron has warned that leaving the European Union "could hurt working people for years to come", as he put the case for staying in the EU to MPs.

He said the choice was between an "even greater Britain" by staying in, or a "leap into the dark" by exiting.

There were thinly veiled swipes at Boris Johnson, including the PM ruling out the idea of a second referendum.

More than 100 Conservative MPs want to leave the EU, including some ministers listening to his Common statemets.

In a two and a half hour statement to the House of Commons, Mr Cameron told MPs that, as a prime minister who was not going to seek re-election, he had "no other agenda than what is best for our country".

That was seen as pointed reference to Mr Johnson, who has been accused by some of putting personal political ambition ahead of principle in deciding to campaign for EU exit.

The Conservative MP has rejected that suggestion and insisted that he has long been sceptical of the benefits of EU membership and the UK has a "great future" outside it.

'Harmony'

As he left the Commons on his bicycle after the EU statement, Mr Johnson replied "No" when asked if there was a civil war within the Conservative Party on the issue.

"It's glutinous harmony," he added.

Mr Cameron addressed the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee on Monday evening, joking that "love has broken out" as he left the meeting with his arm around Eurosceptic MP Philip Davies.

Earlier, in the Commons, Mr Johnson intervened during the PM's statement to ask how the deal he negotiated would "in any way" return sovereignty to the UK.

The prime minister defended the deal he negotiated with the EU's 27 other states, outlined in a new government document, telling MPs it would give the UK a "special status" within the EU and ensure it never became part of a European super-state.

James Landale, BBC deputy political editor

Abraham Lincoln said that "a house divided against itself cannot stand". So how can the government stand when it is so utterly divided over Britain's future in the European Union?

The short answer is that it has simply decided to suspend the usual rules demanding unity and loyalty.

Cabinet ministers have been given permission to ignore collective responsibility which requires them to support government policy.

That means that the five full members of the cabinet who are refusing to support the government's position of backing the Remain campaign can stay in their jobs.

But, in a letter published last month, David Cameron set out some pretty tight constraints on what those ministers can do.

The UK, Mr Cameron said, would be "safer and stronger" as a result of a exemption from ever-closer union, limits to in-work benefits for EU migrants that he said could last up to 2028 and protection for countries outside the eurozone, telling MPs that the UK was "better off fighting from the inside".

The prime minister dismissed talk of a second referendum on the terms of withdrawal if the British people voted to leave in four months' time, saying this option was "not on the ballot paper".

In the event of a vote to leave, he said Article 50 of existing EU treaties - the as-yet unused mechanism by which a country could leave the EU - would be triggered straight away and the process of separation would be difficult to reverse. If negotiations were not concluded within two years, he warned that many existing benefits of the UK's membership would lapse automatically.

He also challenged those backing EU exit to set out their alternative vision for the future of the country.