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Burnley Liberal Democrat MP Birtwistle warns his boss

1:40pm Tuesday 27th May 2014 in News By Bill Jacobs, Local government reporter

BURNLEY Liberal Democrat MP Gordon Birtwistle last night warned his party boss Nick Clegg to perform a U-turn on Europe, or put his leadership future in doubt.

After the Lib Dems disast-rous performance in the Eur-opean election, Mr Birtwistle said Mr Clegg must listen to the people and support a ref-erendum in 2017 on the issue of Brussels laws affecting the UK.

The Burnley MP demanded his leader sack his advisers and back Prime Minister David Cameron on a ren-egotiation of Britains memb-ership of the European Union followed by a UK-wide vote on the new terms.

Mr Birtwistle added: If he fails to do this, his leadership will become an issue.

His warning came as Mr Clegg rejected a call to stand down after the partys worst European election result for 25 years.

Southport MP John Pugh said Business Secretary Vince Cable should replace him after the party lost all but one of its 12 MEPs in the face of a UK Independence Party surge to victory nationally.

The Lib Dems slipped to fifth in the European polls, beh- ind the Green Party, as they lost seats in every region, apart from the south east of England.

Mr Birtwistle said: I am not calling for Mr Clegg to go now. I am calling on him to sack the advisers who told him not to back the Prime Min-isters policy of a renegot-iation of the UKs terms of membership of the EU foll-owed by a referendum in 2017.

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Burnley Liberal Democrat MP Birtwistle warns his boss