David Cameron announces EU referendum date: As it happened
Prime Minister announces deal after marathon talks – but now he must convince his own MPs
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Your support makes all the difference.David Cameron has announced the date for the UK's referendum on European membership after reaching a deal on reforms in Brussels. Here are the latest updates:
- The PM has set the date for the EU referendum on 23 June
- Here is the full speech he made outside Downing Street
- Theresa May has confirmed her backing for the 'in' campaign
- Vote Leave launched its with Gove and five other ministers
- These are the Cabinet ministers rooting for a Brexit
- Jeremy Corbyn said the PM's deal is just a 'sideshow'
- A 'unanimous agreement' was reached in Brussels yesterday
- ...and this is how it happened
- Bookmakers have reduced their odds on a Brexit
- What is in the deal?
- The PM didn't get everything he wanted
- Why yesterday was a very bad day for the 'out' camp
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The Prime Minister set out his EU reform plan to his senior ministerial team this morning after vowing to campaign “heart and soul” for the deal finally agreed in marathon talks in Brussels.
The meeting of the Cabinet - the first to be held on a Saturday since the Falklands War - fired the starting gun in the campaign for the Prime Minister's long-promised the referendum on 23 June.
Ministers such as Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling opposed to Britain's membership of the EU can finally go public and say they will be campaigning to leave.
Speaking at a late night Friday news conference - following talks which began on Thursday afternoon and went on through much of the night - an emotional Mr Cameron said the package he had agreed had secured Britain's “special status” in the EU.
“Britain will be permanently out of 'ever closer union', never part of a European superstate,” he said.
“I believe that this is enough for me to recommend that the United Kingdom remains in the European Union, having the best of both worlds."
The agreement was swiftly dismissed by Ukip leader Nigel Farage as a “truly pathetic deal”.
Additional reporting by PA
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