POLITICAL renegade Nikki Sinclaire has launched a new party in an attempt to force the Government to hold a referendum on Europe.

The rebel has launched a ‘We Demand A Referendum’ movement with the sole aim of forcing a straight in or out decision on Britain’s membership of the European Union. It comes on the heels of a YouGov opinion poll which revealed that more than half of Britons wanted a referendum. “Call me a defector, call me a revolutionary, call me what you will – I’m simply following the will of the people who are demanding a referendum on Europe,” she said.

“This isn’t simply a new political party, this is a movement, and it is one that David Cameron and the whole of Westminster must listen to, because we are speaking for the people.”

The West Midlands MEP has delivered two petitions with 220,000 signatures to Number 10, Downing Street – the most recent being last week with the names of 100,000 people backing the call for some decision-making over the UK being in the EU.

Ms Sinclaire has defected from the UK Independence Party to stand independently, and says her new party will field candidates in all 73 UK seats for the 2014 European elections.

The movement is being seen as an uprising in the same mould as Sir James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party which delivered a serious broadside to the Tories in the 1997 general election. She said: “Promise after promise has been broken by all parties and it is time for the people to empower themselves and demand a referendum.”

This week, a group of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs called the Fresh Start Group said they are preparing a list of demands for Mr Cameron over the EU. But the Prime Minster has consistently argued that the country is better off being inside the union than outside it.