Peter Cruddas Joins Business for Britain Group to Lobby for EU Reform

Billionaire Peter Cruddas has joined the Business for Britain lobby group to press for reforms in the United Kingdom's relationship with the European Union.

Cruddas wrote a letter outlining his displeasure at EU bureaucracy in the Daily Telegraph.

"Like many people in Britain, my concern with the reach of Brussels into British life has come from the spiralling cost of the EU project, the ever-rising number of laws and regulations that apparently overrule Parliament, and the creeping feeling that our ability – both as voters and Britons – to influence the direction of the European project is being diminished.

"It's time to decide what we want from the EU and to make that change happen. To that end, I have joined the board of Business for Britain – an organisation backed by hundreds of UK business people who are starting to draw up the options for changing the terms of Britain's EU membership."

Chancellor George Osborne is set to give a major speech on Britain's relationship with the EU on 16 January at the Fresh Start Conference where he will argue for reform within the EU rather than leaving it outright.

Cruddas was forced to resign from his position as co-treasurer of the Conservative party after allegations surfaced in the Sunday Times that he charged £250,000 (€301,660, $ 412,450) for people to meet David Cameron and other ministers.

He subsequently won a libel case against the paper where he was awarded libel damages of £180,000.

He also received an apology from Cameron after he was frozen out of the Conservative party due to the scandal.