Former British finance minister Nigel Lawson calls for EU exit

Britain would enjoy a significant economic boost if it left the European Union, former finance minister Nigel Lawson said in an article on Tuesday which will fuel the debate about a referendum on British membership.

Writing in the Times, Nigel Lawson insisted that “the case for exit” was now clear and urged Britain to sever its 40-year association with Brussels.

“In my judgement the economic gains would substantially outweigh the costs,” wrote Lawson, who was Margaret Thatcher’s longest serving Chancellor of the Exchequer.

He said the EU had become a “bureaucratic monstrosity” and warned that the idea of “a federal European superstate” was “profoundly misguided” and “certainly not for us”.

Lawson, who voted to keep Britain in the bloc during a 1975 referendum, also claimed that an exit would save Britain’s valuable financial sector from a “frenzy of regulatory activism”.

His comments come days after Britain’s Eurosceptic and anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) scored resounding successes in local polls, piling pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron.