Shropshire Star

Bookies eye up Shropshire MP Owen Paterson over Tory leadership

He's the darling of the Conservative right  – and today North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson emerged as a dark horse in the race to be the next party leader.

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As David Cameron let slip that he is ready to stand down at the end of a second term, Mr Paterson was travelling to the US where he is making a speech about Britain's role in the world.

It is the perfect platform for him to cement his role as a heavyweight politician with a vision for the future of the UK away from Europe.

And with Mr Cameron's likely departure after a possible referendum that could see voters demanding an exit from the EU, the momentum could move Mr Paterson's way.

Of course the Tories need to win the General Election first, but Mr Paterson has experience in leadership races having been a close ally of Iain Duncan Smith when he was installed in 2003.

Mr Paterson is also an increasingly influential figure internationally. The former Environment Secretary was in Washington today, where he was delivering a speech to the Heritage Foundation think-tank in front of US conservatives.

He was proposing an "Anglosphere Alliance", a new global role for the UK and gave a number of reasons why the UK should leave the European Union.

Current odds: Boris Johnson, 5-2; Theresa May, 4-1; Phillip Hammond, 10-1; George Osborne, 12-1; Javid Singh, 14-1; Owen Paterson, 25-1

Owen Paterson was today delivering a keynote speech on Europe – as he was installed as a possible candidate to become the next Conservative leader.

Bookmakers have made him a 25-1 bet to take over from David Cameron, who has made it clear he will not serve a third time if he were to win the general election in May.

Mr Paterson is a leading Euro-sceptic in the Tory party and his role to the right of the party could push him forward as a possible contender.

Boris Johnson was today installed as favourite in the race to replace Mr Cameron, with Theresa May and George Osborne among the other contenders.

Mr Paterson is among a group considered to be realistic candidates, with Ladbrokes naming him seventh favourite.

The former minister was today delivering a speech in Washington, where he was calling for a move away from Europe.

He said the UK should withdraw from the EU and instead forge closer links with America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Speaking at the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom in Washington, he said: "Americans tend to see the EU primarily as an economic project but it was always and still is primarily a political one. It uses economic means to secure political integration, with the end game the creation of a supreme government of Europe.

"My argument today is that British withdrawal from the European Union will reinvigorate rather than degrade those states of affairs that, from America's point of view, the original European Community was established to secure.

"The UK, leaving the EU, would regain our independence to devise our own foreign policy. Working with like-minded allies, we would forge our own defence policy and the practical requirements that should follow on from that. recent decades."

Mr Paterson described the euro as "disastrous" which he said had "strangled economic growth" in the continent.

He added: "Today, every continent on Earth is experiencing steady economic growth.

"The exception is Europe, where the economy actually shrank in 2013 and grew by a miserable 0.3 per cent in 2014."

He spoke of a vision away from Europe, where the UK looks to the US, Canada, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Commonweath nations, as well as South Asia, in the future.

"British withdrawal from the European Union will reinvigorate Europe and our exit will strengthen both the global trading system and the foundations of global security," he said.

Mr Paterson said that every continent was experiencing steady economic growth except Europe with a catastrophic lack of European job creation.

In a highly critical attack on EU bureaucracy, the Shropshire MP said the union was weighed down by unsustainable burdens, differences between the Single Market and the EU and said that leaving the EU would not damage Britain's ability to continue its trade with European neighbours.

He added: "You can stay in the Single Market and not be in the EU. It is the Single Market comprising the 31-member European Economic Area that delivers jobs, not the EU."

Entering the European free trade association and European Economic Area it could still enjoy trading benefits without the cost of the political and judicial baggage, he said.

Warning

When Secretary of State for the Environment, Mr Paterson said he had been only too aware that EU laws were being superseded by international laws, ranging from food standards and animal health to vehicle regulation and banking.

The former Northern Ireland ended his speech with a warning that global political security was at stake, condemning calls by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for a European army, warning that the creation of such a force would undermine Western security.

"If this ambition was ever realised, it would cut across the close relationship between the UK and the US, and its 'special relationship'," MR Paterson insisted.

" It would undermine the structure of Nato and weaken the resolve of individual member states to maintain their own militaries, using the European force as an excuse for cutting back their own defence expenditure," he added.

"America needs Britain as an ally on many fronts," said Mr Paterson.

"It needs us to reassert ourselves as a nation, to take our place once again in the counsels of the earth."

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