EU membership not hindering efforts to help steel plant, says Cameron

David Cameron has denied that being in the European Union is hampering efforts to save Britain's struggling steel industry, warning the situation would be worse if the country voted to leave on June 23rd.

Leave campaigners claim that EU rules limiting state aid to industry are preventing the government from taking effective action to save a Tata Steel plant in the Welsh town of Port Talbot, which is threatened with closure.

“We have got a very difficult situation with the steel industry in our country, just as other countries do. We have got a government that is determined to help in every way we can,” Mr Cameron said.

Britain's steel industry is struggling to compete with a flood of cheap imports from China, but the prime minister said it could face EU tariffs if Britain voted to leave.

“It is a tough trading world out there. We need those European markets open. We need strength in numbers through Europe to make sure we crack down on the dumping of Chinese and other steel. And Britain is leading the way in making sure that happens,” he said.

Mr Cameron was making the case for EU membership to PwC workers in Birmingham as a new poll suggested his warnings about the dangers of leaving were having some success.

The ORB poll for the Daily Telegraph found that 51 per cent of voters favoured remaining in the EU, while 44 per cent wanted to leave.

Only 5 per cent said they were undecided, and the poll found the undecided were more likely to back the Remain campaign. Leave voters are more certain they will vote, however, and when this is taken into account, the two sides are almost tied, with Remain on 49 per cent and Leave on 48 per cent. Some 39 per cent of voters said the Remain campaign was “more credible and trustworthy”, compared to just 32 per cent who said the same of the Leave campaign.

Britain’s farmers heard yesterday they could lose an average of €34,000 a year if Britain leaves the EU, unless new national subsidies were introduced to boost farm incomes.

The study, commissioned by the National Farmers Union from the LEI research institute at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, examined three likely post-Brexit trade scenarios.

Alternatives

Mr Cameron told his audience in Birmingham that alternatives to EU membership, such as a trade deal similar to that between the EU and

Canada

, would not cover key economic sectors such as services.

"Let me just give you a couple of examples : a Canadian airline can fly between Canada and a European city but it can't fly within Europe. What does that mean for easyJet or for Ryanair, for companies like that that are so vital in terms of the cheap air flights that we all enjoy?" he said.