Ed Miliband fails to rule out EU referendum If there is a transfer of powers, there's legislation on the books that says there would be a referendum. However he refused to say whether he could in future offer the British people a referendum on whether to change the UK's relationship with the EU. Mr Miliband admitted that "there are areas" including industrial policy where Britain needs to repatriate powers from the EU. "I think there are areas where Britain actually needs some powers back," he said. He said that "committing now" to an in-out referendum "has big costs for Britain" and accused David Cameron of "taking us to the economic cliff." Mr Miliband said the Prime Minister's negotiating strategy is "hopeless" but admitted that he does not "think the European Union is working well." "The idea that people are more likely to accede to your demands if you say well, "We're just going to walk away" and Britain can just be written off, I honestly don't believe that's going to help us," he added. "The question for Britain is two-fold," Mr Miliband said. How do we make sure that we continue to have influence and protect our interests, within that European Union? And secondly, how do we change Europe, how do we at this moment change Europe so it better reflects our interests? The debate here is between essentially those who say reform Europe and the European Union to change it to work in our interests, and I fear the Prime Minister's strategy which is leading us towards exit, which would cause real damage to our economy.