What Nigel Lawson’s new role at Conservatives for Britain means for Eurosceptics

Eurosceptic Tories have a new voice to herald their cause: Nigel Lawson. The former Chancellor and Spectator editor announced in an op-ed he is becoming the president of Conservatives for Britain, a group working with the Matthew Elliott-Dominic Cummings Out campaign. Lawson explains his explains his red lines for Britain remaining in the EU and suggests the government is unlikely to achieve them:

‘I am not party to the negotiations between ministers and the EU but it is clear that now is the time for David Cameron and George Osborne to set out some red lines. My priorities would be fourfold: the end of the automatic supremacy of EU law over UK law; the ability for the UK to negotiate its own free trade deals with fast-growing countries such as India and China; the ability to control immigration from other EU countries to the UK; and the explicit renunciation by the EU of its absolute commitment to “ever-closer union”.’

Although signing up Lawson is a coup for the campaign, the main thing to note about Lawson’s new role is he is president of Conservatives for Britain while Steve Baker, the MP for Wycombe, and David Campbell Bannerman, an MEP for the East of England, remain the co-chairmen.