We asled Hitchin and Harpenden MP Peter Lilley which way he would be voting on June 23.

I love Europe. I did an apprenticeship in France, worked in Holland and Belgium, chaired a German company, own a home in France and speak French. In 1975 I campaigned to keep us in the Common Market. But Europe is not the EU, and the EU is not the Common Market.

This referendum is about democracy and prosperity. In a democracy, if the government fails to deliver prosperity the people can chuck it out. The EU is not like that. The Commission – its government – is unelected. Its flagship project, the Euro, has been a catastrophe, yet not one Commissioner lost their job, even though millions of Europeans lost theirs.

Thankfully Britain stayed out of the euro, but most of those who back Remain urged us to join.

They were wrong then, and are wrong now.

But the EU still controls vast areas of our life. This is our opportunity to take back control:

Control our laws: because already around half of our laws originate in Brussels.

Control our money: we could spend our £10billion net contribution on the NHS or other services.

Control our borders: we should be able to decide how many, with what skills and from where people come.

This is not a choice between change and no change. The EU is about to leap forward towards a centralised European state: its original objective. If we remain in the EU we will be under pressure to adopt the Euro, join Schengen, and become a component part of this European state – just like Texas is part of the USA. If we leave we can be more like Canada – trading with our neighbours, but free to make our own laws, spend our own money, and make our own decisions on war and peace.

As the only serving MP who has negotiated a trade agreement, and who implemented the Single Market programme when I was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, I am confident that we can negotiate a good deal with the rest of Europe, trade deals with the likes of China, India and Brazil, and prosper outside the EU.