Leaving EU 'would be devastating'

The former chancellor of the exchequer, Lord Lawson, has called for the UK to leave the European Union. Writing in the Times, he said British economic gains from an exit "would substantially outweigh the costs".

Richard Corbett, a former Labour MEP and an advisor to the President of the European Council, Herman Von Rompuy, told the Today programme's Sarah Montague that the EU is by its nature in a permanent state of negotiation but that it's not exactly clear what kind of renegotiation the British government might be seeking.

"There's a lot of talk about renegotiation but nobody has actually said exactly what they would wish to change - apart from ideas floating around. But, there's nothing actually put on the table by the British government," he said.

He added that if Britain were to leaving the EU it would be "one heck of a risk... imagine what [leaving the EU] would do to jobs in Britain, it would be devastating."

Sir Gerald Howarth, part of the Fresh Start Project of conservative MPs who want to renegotiate the UK's relationship with Europe, said that: "the real challenge for the government is to persuade people that if we were to leave the EU we would nevertheless have access to those [European] markets."

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday 7 May 2013.