David Cameron hints at EU referendum amid eurozone crisis David Cameron, pictured next to former US athlete Edwin Moses, in Rio. The PM said: 'Fresh consent from the British people, that is what we need'. David Cameron has confirmed that the British people will be given a say, possibly in a referendum, on any new EU settlement after the next general election. Speaking on the final day of his visit to the US and Brazil, the prime minister also announced that Britain would opt out of a series of EU law and order policies later this year. Cameron said that major changes to the EU would require "fresh consent" from the British people. But he stopped short of specifically mentioning a referendum because the timing of a new EU agreement could mean that it would make more sense to seek the consent of voters in a general election. The prime minister, who will set out his thinking in the autumn, believes a referendum is the most likely outcome after a new EU settlement is agreed in the wake of the eurozone crisis. In a sign of a more immediate hardline approach, he said Britain would exercise its rights to stand apart from a series of justice and home affairs measures later this year. Asked by the BBC whether Britain would opt out of EU justice and policing powers, he said: "That has to be done before the end of the year, and the opt-out is there. We'll be exercising that opt-out. The key thing then is, well, which of the array of things you've come out of do you actually think are good for Britain and you want to co-operate with European partners on? And that's a discussion we're having at the moment. The prime minister said voters would be consulted once a new EU settlement had been agreed. He told Sky News in Rio de Janeiro: "When we achieve that new settlement I think we will be able to seek fresh consent from the British people. I will be setting that out in the autumn before the end of the year. I think that is the way the country wants to go and that is the way we should go, safeguarding Britain's interests. A new settlement and a fresh consent from the British people, that is what I believe we need. Cameron, who faces intense political pressure from the UK Independence party in the runup to the 2014 European parliamentary elections, believes voters will need to be consulted if the EU agrees a major treaty revision in the next few years. Eurozone leaders are expected to agree wide-ranging changes to the governance of the single currency, possibly by moving towards a fiscal union, to avoid a repeat of the euro crisis. Britain will not be part of the arrangements. But the changes will have to be agreed by all 27 EU members in a new treaty or in a revision to the Lisbon treaty. The prime minister would use the treaty negotiations, in which Britain would have a veto, to recast the country's relationship with the EU by repatriating powers. It is expected he would ask for the contents of the chapter on social and employment laws, which is sprinkled in various places of the Lisbon treaty, to be repatriated. Cameron said: "I don't think it is in Britain's interests to leave the EU, but I do think what it is increasingly becoming the time for is a new settlement between Britain and Europe, and I think that new settlement will require fresh consent. In the next parliament, I think there will be opportunities for a fresh settlement and for new consent to that settlement. The fact is Europe is changing - and changing rapidly. The eurozone of 17 countries with one currency, I believe that one day they are going to move towards one economic policy. We are not going to be part of that and I think that will provide over time opportunities for a new settlement between Britain and Europe. Cameron's thinking was recently set out by Sir John Major who told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show the negotiations would provide Britain with a chance to recast relations with the EU. This could bring an end to what he called the long-running sore of Britain's fraught relations with the union. But Cameron will tread with care because Britain does not know when a major treaty revision will take place, and he does not want to undermine Britain's negotiating position by sounding too shrill about a referendum. Some eurozone leaders want prompt action. But José Manuel Barroso, the European commission president, has called for a slower approach. In his state of the union address recently he floated the idea of using the results of elections to the European parliament in 2014 as a way of establishing a negotiating framework. Britain expects a slower approach because the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is focused on next year's federal elections. But Cameron feels he must speak out now because there will be three EU summits before Christmas covering a banking union for the bloc, the next seven-year EU budget and the eurozone crisis. In an interview with ITN, the prime minister confirmed for the first time that Andrew Mitchell, the chief whip, had damaged the government when he swore at police in Downing Street. Cameron told ITN: "Well, look of course it's been damaging but the fact is that the chief whip has apologised, and apologised properly. And that needed to happen, and this must never ever happen again. And the police have said they're not taking it further, and on that basis I think we can let matters rest there.