New calls for EU referendum as George Osborne admits people are worried about sovereignty The Chancellor was pressed on whether the new structures the EU produces in response to the euro crisis would involve reshaping the UK's relationship with Brussels. He said: "What the public are concerned about, what the British people are concerned about would be if there was any transfer of power or sovereignty. A reshaped relationship with Europe would imply, would involve, a transfer of sovereignty or powers from the UK to Brussels. But he said there was a "very clear safeguard" that if there was a proposed transfer of powers "then there will be a referendum." That is not something that happened at the time of the Lisbon Treaty and the constitution, that is not something that happened at the time of the Maastricht Treaty. We have now put right that by ensuring, in law, there is this referendum lock. Should there be a referendum on Europe? In his new book Europe Restructured, Lord Owen concludes that a referendum on Europe in the UK could be necessary as early as next year if the eurozone collapsed, or in 2015 or 2016 at the latest. The referendum would ask two questions: on being part of a single market in a wider European community, and on remaining in the European Union with the possibility of joining the more integrated eurozone. The peer, who was foreign secretary from 1977 to 1979, wrote in The Times: "The first question would be very likely to be answered by the British public with a 'yes', and any British government would urge them to do so. The second question would be harder to predict, but it would be a genuine choice, and the government might be neutral, ready to follow rather than lead public opinion. If both questions were answered 'no', this would in effect mean a total withdrawal. Tory Andrea Leadsom, co-chair of the Fresh Start group of MPs, said the euro crisis was a "perfect opportunity" to renegotiate Britain's position in the EU. "This isn't about profiting from the eurozone's hardship - it's about facing up to the reality of the damage the EU is doing to our economy and our civil society and showing the single-mindedness to do something about it," she wrote in the Daily Telegraph. Her plan would involve the "nuclear option" of defying EU rules if it was in the interests of the UK. Tory Douglas Carswell will attempt to use a private member's bill to repeal the legislation which led to the UK joining the European Union. He said: "Getting Britain out of the EU is legally straightforward. Economically, it is increasingly desirable. Politically, it is no longer easy to dismiss as pie-in-the-sky.