99% of you say: Get us out of Europe

A MASSIVE wave of public support was last night surging behind the Daily Express’s crusade to liberate Britain from the stranglehold of Brussels.

Thousands are joining our crusade like Susan McKendry 24 reading the Daily Express in Birmingham Thousands are joining our crusade, like Susan McKendry, 24, reading the Daily Express in Birmingham

An exclusive poll conducted on the first day of our crusade showed an astonishing 99 per cent of people agree we should quit the European Union.

In an indication of the strength of public feeling on the issue, the poll saw the biggest ever response to a Daily Express phone survey, with tens of thousands of people swamping our switchboards.

The newspaper’s phone lines and website were flooded with people backing our pioneering decision to become the first national newspaper in the country to call for British independence from the EU. And around the country, voters made clear their deep frustration with Brussels meddling and their anger that Britain has not been given a referendum on our EU membership for a generation, despite promises by several Governments.

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Tory peer Lord Tebbit yesterday led the acclaim for the paper’s patriotic stance. The former Cabinet Minister, one of Lady Thatcher’s closest polit­ical allies, said: “The decision of the Daily Express to join the campaign for Britain to withdraw from the EU is highly significant and puts the paper at the forefront of public opinion in this country.”

Tory Euro-MP Roger Helmer said: “Three cheers and a chorus of Rule Britannia for the Daily Express. At long last a national newspaper has come out and said what more and more people, and more and more Conservatives, believe.

“Other papers have called for less integration, more repatriation of powers, and opposition to individual EU measures, but the Express is the first to break cover and call for Britain to leave outright. They are so obviously right.

“As I have argued for years, we would be Better Off Out. As a Conservative MEP I am proud to give the Daily Express campaign my backing.”

As the shockwaves reverberated around Westminster, Brussels and Strasbourg, voters all over the UK backed our crusade to regain Britain’s national independence.

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Refreshment stall owner Nigel Hammond, 35, from Bristol, said: “People are too wrapped up in X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing to consider the ramifications of joining the EU.

“Brussels decided, for instance, that we should have energy-saving light bulbs in this country. Our forefathers would turn in their graves if they knew we were coerced by Brussels as much as we are.”

Richard Hey-Smith, 57, a teacher from Birmingham, said: “I love Europe and the people in Europe, but I think we should be out of the EU.

“What we joined in 1971 wasn’t what they had planned for us in the long run. We were a great industrial nation but now we’re a leisure park. The fishing industry, for example, has been ruined. And how many farmers are leaving farming each week?”

Nurse Susan McKendry, 24, from Ballymena, Northern Ireland, said: “Britain is losing too much money and giving away too much control. Britain should retain its own identity.”

Ian McGurk, a 27-year-old telecommunications worker from Liverpool, said: “I think we should get out of Europe. The taxes are too high and Britain will lose too much money if it stays in. We used to do a lot of business outside Europe, but now we only focus on the EU. We have enough problems at home without being dragged into European issues too.”

Phil Dixon, 53, a coach driver from Swindon, said: “In every profession it seems like more and more European control is creeping in. I got a letter from my bank the other day, saying that the rules for insurance on my savings had changed. And it’s all because of European regulations. I wasn’t consulted about it.”

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Roger Foster, 65, a power station worker from Hull, said: “We seem to be putting an awful lot of money into it when we are cutting things here. It’s money that could be better spent in our country rather than lining bureaucrats’ pockets.”

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