David Campbell Bannerman MEP: I now know I made the right decision in leaving UKIP and joining the pro-referendum Conservatives

David Campbell Bannerman is a Conservative MEP for the Eastern Region. Follow David on Twitter.

Recently I was informed that a UKIP Dorset branch had burnt me in effigy for returning to the Conservative Party. I was also physically threatened by a senior UKIP member. Neither was it easy or comfortable to let down good UKIP people who had backed me. I was accused of personal ambition for leaving.

But the reality was much simpler: I put my country first, and I had seen first hand that only the Conservative Party could save our nation from immersion in a United States of Europe that has been so often denied as fantasy, but is now being openly advocated by Angela Merkel, as the Chancellor of Germany and by the President of the European Commission, Mr Barroso.  

If you believe in leaving the European Union, as two thirds of Conservatives believe or three-quarters according to the latest ConHome poll, what are the choices? Clearly the Lib Dems are predominantly arch EU federalists. Labour are a million miles away from Old Labour’s 1983 manifesto advocating withdrawal. So the choice is: a UKIP Government or a Conservative commitment to an In/Out Referendum.

David Campbell Bannerman MEP: What question should be asked in an EU referendum?

David Campbell Bannerman is a Conservative MEP for the Eastern Region. Follow David on Twitter.

On our relationship with the EU, I know the answer I want, but what should the question be?

There is much in the media at the moment about the possibility of getting powers back from the EU, but it has all been a bit vague for my liking. Some fine sentiments, but sadly lacking in actual detail.

Speculation is growing that before long we will have a referendum on our future relationship with the EU, but again, no details on what the public will be asked to decide on. No well defined question has been touted that either Europhiles or Eurosceptics like myself, can get behind.

Electorally, as boundary changes have been thrown into doubt, it is clear that UKIP could be even more of a threat to a Conservative majority in the next election on current boundaries than they were in 2010.

So it is vital that we propose a meaningful question on the referendum ballot paper, one that will reassure Eurosceptic voters that the Conservatives are the only party who can deliver real change over Europe and attract voters back from UKIP's single issue ticket - just as I was.

David Campbell-Bannerman MEP: To win a referendum and free Britain from the EU, we have to be positive and show how realistic it is to leave

David Campbell Bannerman has been an MEP for the East of England since 2009. In May he defected from the UK Independence Party to the Conservatives.

Economic governance, a financial transaction tax and the impending collapse of the Euro - the EU project is in serious trouble. A majority of British people want to leave the EU and even more demand an In/Out referendum to settle the issue. A You Gov poll this July showed 75% of Tories want a referendum and two thirds want to leave the EU.

The Prime Minister has made it clear that he “does not see the case for an In/Out referendum on Europe”. He’s right – Eurosceptics to date have not made that case effectively enough. The EU may be terrible for us, and there is plenty to criticise, but we can only address the fear of change and of overturning the status quo by successfully articulating an attractive, credible, positive alternative outside the EU, and not just rely on attacking the EU.

I believe that the paper I launch today: ‘The Ultimate Plan B: A Positive Vision of an independent Britain outside the European Union’ in cooperation with The Freedom Association helps starts that process. The Positive Vision is one based on greater freedom, national self determination, greater economic prosperity, and an end to excessive regulation.

David Campbell-Bannerman MEP: Dale Farm eviction efforts indicative of Conservative struggle

David Campbell Bannerman has been an MEP for the East of England since 2009. In May he defected from the UK Independence Party to the Conservatives.

The furore over the Dale Farm traveller site has exposed the level of opposition that the Conservative movement faces. Planning laws have been violated and the Council have acted. If Joe Public didn’t have planning permission for a flag pole, chances are the Council will jump on the perpetrator. So why is there a big public debate on the Dale Farm issue? Surely it’s a simple case of ‘you didn’t have planning permission, so it comes down?’ Was Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour having his human rights violated when Hove Council rejected a planning application for a beach hut? Where was Vanessa Redgrave then? Celebrity solidarity was clearly lacking on that one.

Yet Dale Farm has become a cause celebre for the human rights brigade, far-leftists and anarchists to advance an issue that the public are wholly opposed to. On the first day of the eviction process, there were more ‘human rights’ protesters on the site than there were residents. And it’s not just related to the usual suspects. Labour’s sole Eastern MEP Richard Howitt has been proudly defending the illegal site, demanding that the Government listen to the Council of Europe and Amnesty International on this rather than the wishes of the people of his constituency.

David Campbell Bannerman MEP: The Conservative Party - not UKIP - offers the most realistic way out of the EU

David Campbell Bannerman has been an MEP for the East of England since 2009. Last month he defected from the UK Independence Party to the Conservatives.

It is perhaps appropriate my first article as a returned Conservative is for ConservativeHome, for I have received a genuinely warm welcome home.

Before my seven years with UKIP as Party Chairman, Deputy Leader and Head of Policy (writing the 2010 manifesto), I was a Conservative for twenty years. I served as a Government Special Adviser (Northern Ireland 1996-97), Bow Group Chairman (with Eurosceptics such as Bill Cash, Michael Howard and Dan Hannan), a Conservative councillor in Tunbridge Wells, and as a parliamentary candidate.

Having said that, I have not come home as a repentant sinner but someone who still believes in UKIP's central message: that of British withdrawal from the EU, which many Conservative members and parliamentarians believe in too, with a number lending their vote to UKIP in European elections. My official statement graciously acknowledged this, saying: "Of course, I have not always seen eye to eye with the Conservative Party on every issue. I continue to believe personally that Britain should leave the EU".

So why do I think that I am better pursuing this goal from the Conservative camp and not within UKIP?