Social Chapter is “threat to British jobs”

Conservative Party leader Michael Howard has told the annual party conference that if elected the Tories will want to withdraw from the Social Chapter – the EU agreement concerning employment rights and pay.

Mr Howard told the party faithful: “We want out of the Social Chapter, which is a threat to British jobs.”

He said: “The European Union is spewing out too many regulations. It's holding our economy back.

“ We cannot go on like this. It is a recipe for certain economic decline.”