Ken Clarke attacks 'eurosceptic extremism'

By Alex Stevenson

Conservative EU champion Ken Clarke has hit out at the "extreme right-wing nationalism" of eurosceptics - in both Ukip and his only party.

The minister without portfolio grouped Tory MPs and even Cabinet ministers like Iain Duncan Smith with Ukip "statesmen" at a fringe event in Manchester.

"The world of the 21st century is one in which the British are going to have some clout and are going to have some idea of how to give themselves a platform to exercise that clout," Clarke said.

"This is not time for paranoia, this is no time for old-fashioned nostalgia.

"This is no time for extreme right-wing nationalism, believing that somehow we can opt out of all this and cope with it ourselves.

"That is the bigger issue that will be resolved if we can ever get this European debate finally resolved."

Clarke said Britain would lose out in global trade talks to emerging economies if it left the EU, warning negotiators would be "outgunned by the Americans".

"Little Britain exercising sovereignty on its own isn't going to get very far," he added.

Those arguing that Britain could prosper outside the European Union often cite Norway as an example - but Clarke cited Norway's oil resources and said its government relies on emails from Sweden to monitor developments in Brussels.

"I feel bewildered that we still have this argument, and bewildered in the terms in which it is put forward," he said.

He mocked the Ukip outlook as "a world in which we have to fight off the immigrants, fight off the foreigners [and] disengage from all this - proudly back to some long-lost age when apparently we didn't need to bother with all these problems".

"If we allow Mr Bloom and Mr Farage to lead us off into some land of splendid isolation I must say I weep for England. The patriot in me is disturbed."