Northern England's three regions benefit from stacks of EU funding, but polls show little gratitude. A "ticking time bomb" is how one Yorkshireman has previously described the issue of Europe for the Conservatives. In the week that the Prime Minister saw the largest post-war rebellion on Europe over whether to hold a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, it would be difficult to disagree with the Foreign Secretary and Richmond MP, William Hague's advice to David Cameron.
As rebel upon rebel on the government benches in the House of Commons argued on Monday that it was time the people had their say, and were given an opportunity to decide for themselves about the UK's future relations with Europe, both the Government and opposition front benches had a clear argument: in the week that EU leaders faced what were billed as crunch talks to address the crisis engulfing the euro-zone, the top priority was avoiding a full scale economic and financial meltdown across the continent.
Yet despite the argument that the country does not need the distraction of a referendum, polling carried out by ComRes for ITV News this week clearly showed a deep rooted euro-scepticism across northern England. Asked about their attitude towards referendum, 69% of those questioned across the three northern regions supported a vote. Only the two Midlands regions matched that.
For more: Why is the North so Eurosceptic? | UK news | guardian.co.uk
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