Clegg called for Conservative MPs to “make up their mind” about Britain’s EU membership, after more than 90 Tories wrote to the prime minister urging him to give Parliament a national veto over current and future EU laws.
Speaking on the BBC Andrew Marr Show, Clegg said: “I want us in the EU because it means people are in work. Being in Europe means being in work as far as British workers are concerned."
He also defended the principle of free movement, arguing that it benefited Britons.
“If you want a single market, if you want more jobs to be created in the world’s largest single borderless market, you need to give people the right to look for work,” Clegg said.
“By some estimates, two million Brits live and work in other EU countries. If we're to say to Finnish engineers or Dutch accountants, ‘You’ve all got to leave’, what is that going to mean to all the Brits who live in southern Europe, whether they’re retired or live and work in other parts of the EU?”
MPs ask for EU veto
In a letter to David Cameron, MPs asked him to act upon suggestions made by the European Scrutiny Committee to establish a veto over current and future EU laws and enable Parliament to disapply EU legislation.
The letter said: “This proposal would enable the Government, for example, to recover control over our borders, to lift EU burdens on business, to regain control over energy policy and to disapply the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (which is set impose enormous costs on British business and taxpayers) in popular and sensible ways.
“Building on your achievements, we would urge you to back the European Scrutiny Committee proposal and make the idea of a national veto over current and future EU laws a reality.”
