Today the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, published the 16-page draft deal on possible changes to an EU directive which you can read in full HERE.
Anne-Marie's statement to the proposals outlined by Mr Tusk is as follows:
"Today we saw that the EU technocrats have watered down the modest proposals the Prime Minister brought to the negotiating table, and there is no guarantee that the other 27 nations will agree to the measures outlined. This would not enable us to take back control and the possible graduated changes to EU migrants’ ability to immediately claim benefits will not be backed up by a treaty. If this is how the UK’s serious concerns are treated by Brussels when we threaten to leave, I dread to think how they would treat us if we voted to stay in. The safest option is to leave and forge ahead with our own trade agreements with Europe and the wider world.
"We are going to hear a lot of scaremongering in the coming months about how Britain is dependent on the EU’s political institutions and cannot manage without them. I think that’s absurd. We are and always have been a strong, outward-facing nation, perfectly capable of striking trade deals, doing business and working together with the rest of Europe and the world, without needing EU politicians to tell us to. Without the constraints of EU red tape and without having to funnel huge sums of money through Brussels, we will have the capacity and resources to ensure our farmers are better supported, work up more favourable trade deals, and decide our own migration policy which would enable us to welcome the brightest and best from Europe and the wider world. A future beyond the limitations of the EU’s political systems hold so much promise for a strong nation such as ours, and I look forward to campaigning for it in the coming months."