The Conservatives will fight the next general election on a strongly anti-Europe ticket, David Cameron told his MPs on Wednesday night.
The party will also install paid campaigners in the top 40 constitutencies the party needs to win a Commons majority at the next general election, expected in May 2015. Many of them are held by Liberal Democrat MPs.
The Prime Minister told a meeting of his backbench MPs in the House of Commons that the Tories would fight the election on Eurosceptic policies.
To loud banging of desks, he told the 1922 Committee the party had to get “the big calls right” and there was no bigger call than the decision the party had to make on Europe.
He said: “I want you all to be absolutely clear – we will go into the next election with a clear Eurosceptic position. It will clearly be in tune with the British people, we will be the ones offering the British people a genuine change and a genuine choice.”
He said that he wanted to “grab the opportunity” to win a clear mandate at the next election to reshape Britain’s relationship with Europe.