European Union: Britain Must Be At Top Table

David Cameron has risked angering Tory backbenchers by insisting that the European Union should be a key part of Britain's future.

The Prime Minister stressed the importance of being at the "top table" in institutions like the EU, arguing membership is in the national interest.

Mr Cameron did insist that people worried about immigration and British sovereignty should not be dismissed as "little Englanders".

He accused critics calling for borders to be opened up and the UK to relinquish powers of being "frankly patronising" to those holding the opposite view.

But he also warned that those who wanted the UK to focus on trade in its foreign policy rather than aid, global poverty and climate change were pursuing a "short-term, narrow" agenda.

His comments, in a speech in Essex, come weeks after a party row over Europe in which two Tory Cabinet ministers said they would vote to leave the group now.

"Membership of these organisations is not national vanity - it is in our national interest," Mr Cameron said.

"The fact is that it is in international institutions that many of the rules of the game are set on trade, tax and regulation. When a country like ours is affected profoundly by those rules, I want us to have a say on them."

However, he insisted that membership of the EU does not require "supinely going with the flow of multilateral opinion".

"At the European Union we are prepared to stand up for Britain's interests with resolve and tenacity," he added.

Mr Cameron declared that his policy on Europe is clear, referring to his pledge of an in-out EU referendum if the Tories retain power in 2015.

But he has also fired a shot across the bows to rebels, insisting he will not be bounced into changing tack on the timing of the vote or the question posed.

The Prime Minister's speech was billed as setting out the UK's role in the world ahead of the G8 conference in Northern Ireland.

He accused Labour of "passing the buck" and hailed action taken by the coalition, although he admitted there is still a long way to go.

He highlighted steps to cut the "bloated" welfare system, improve education and rebalance the "debt-fuelled" economy.

"I do not claim that we have done all we need to, or that we're on the home straight. Far from it. These are still difficult times," he said.

"We are adjusting as a country; going through a necessary time of change. And while times are hard, there will be those who offer easy answers - where there are none ...

"The truth is that today, for our country, there is no such thing as destiny, only our determination to succeed. But together we are showing that determination."

Despite insisting Britain must not withdraw from the world, he also declared that the UK had been "too easily seduced by the rewards of globalisation" in the past.

"We saw mass, uncontrolled immigration changing communities in a way people didn't feel comfortable with, putting huge pressure on public services," he said.

"We saw large bureaucracies like the EU having a huge impact on our way of life in a way no one voted for, while at the same time burdening our businesses with red tape and regulation."

Eurosceptic Tory backbencher Bernard Jenkin said: "The Prime Minister has come to Essex to warn that we cannot afford to be 'little Englanders' - and he is right - but we cannot afford to be 'little Europeans' either, but that's where the EU is taking the UK.

"He is right that the UK's prosperity and security depend so much on what happens in the rest of the world, but wrong to suggest that the UK must stay in the EU.

"Unless there is a fundamental change in our relationship with the EU, the UK will simply have to leave the EU, so British business is free to compete."