George Osborne: Britain is better off in a reformed EU

George Osborne’s speech to the Open Europe conference this morning was billed as the Chancellor taking a tough guy stance with European leaders, demanding that they reform or see their project crumble. It sounded, from the overnight briefings, as though Osborne was trying to cheer up his backbenchers during their current round of banging on about Europe as much as he was trying to make the case for European reform. But when he delivered the full address, it had as much pro-European thinking in it as it did threats. Osborne was focusing on making the case for the whole of Europe to reform, for Europe to create better conditions for and to not discriminate against non-eurozone members, and for Britain’s continued membership of the European Union. There was no sense of ‘Better Off Out’: this was a ‘Better Off Reformed and In’ speech.

Of course, it isn’t a surprise that the Conservative leadership is at odds with many backbenchers in its belief that it is worth renegotiating and reforming, rather than exit being the best option.