Small businesses back Cameron over Europe David Cameron's desire to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Europe has received backing from many in the UK's smaller-business community - although only one in eight groups want to leave the EU. Nearly half of the businesses quizzed in a poll by the British Chamber of Commerce said they wanted a looser relationship with the EU, but believed in the main that it was in Britain's national economic interest to remain part of the single market. Their position is likely to be seized on by Mr Cameron as evidence that his post 2015 "renegotiate and referendum" strategy - due to be outlined in a speech later this month - is the right course for the UK. The prime minister has cut a lone figure this week as both big business and the US administration have rounded on Mr Cameron for playing to the eurosceptic gallery within his party. Business leaders including Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group chairman, and Chris Gibson-Smith, chairman of the London Stock Exchange, warned in a letter to the Financial Times last week that Mr Cameron's renegotiation strategy could fail and result in inadvertently taking Britain out of the EU. The Obama administration also weighed into the debate, publicly flagging its concerns about a possible British exit from the EU. John Longworth, director-general of the BCC, said smaller businesses wanted to renegotiate terms of engagement pointing out that over a third of firms now feel that the disadvantages around the rules and regulations imposed by Brussels were outweighing the benefits of being part of the single market. "Businesses across Britain are pragmatic, and want both a renegotiated relationship and a reinvigorated Single Market," said Mr Longworth. We should not be afraid to set out our stall, because we start with a strong negotiating position. Our trade with the rest of Europe is in deficit, so it is not in Europe's interest to exclude the UK. Only a quarter of the 1,840 BCC members polled wanted Britain's relationship with Europe to remain the same.