LONDON: David Cameron will demand that Britain is able to ignore most of the employment rules imposed on the UK by Brussels as part of his renegotiation with the European Union, it can be disclosed.
The Prime Minister will open up open a major new front in his battle with the EU ahead of Britain’s in-out referendum by seeking to restore opt-outs on the Social Chapter that were jettisoned by Tony Blair.
It means that Britain would no longer be forced to abide by the Working Time Directive, which for eurosceptics has become a totemic symbol of Brussels’ interference in the British economy.
The move will delight Conservative backbenchers, who had warned that Mr Cameron’s renegotiation strategy has been insufficiently ambitious in clawing back powers from Brussels.
Many Conservative MPs worry that the changes Mr Cameron has so far suggested, which focus on new welfare rules preventing EU migrants accessing benefits for four years, do not go far enough.
They have demanded he sets out a detailed package of reforms before the autumn Tory conference.
