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Tuesday 14 June 2016 11:44 am

David Cameron’s EU renegotiations were “Mickey Mouse” according to an international trade lawyer (who also happens to be his former deputy’s wife)

By: Mark Sands

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David Cameron's renegotiations with the EU have been slammed as “Mickey Mouse” by Spanish international trade lawyer Miriam Gonzalez Durantez.

Durantez, who is married to former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, said the UK is “sleepwalking towards disaster” in next week's Brexit vote, and called on the UK to commit to further European reform.

Speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Woman International Summit in London, Durantez, who co-chair's Dechert's International Trade and Government Regulation practice, attacked Cameron saying: “I am all in favour of reform. The European Union is crying for reform. Proper reform. Not that Mickey Mouse negotiation that the Prime Minister did.

“The biggest reform that the EU needs is growth. We need growth in Europe. I believe that this country is sleep walking towards disaster.”

Read More: The great sterling stutter speeds up after Brexit gains momentum

Her comments come after former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt yesterday told the same event that the UK had started a debate on reform in the EU.

Thorning-Schmidt, now chief executive of Save The Chldren, said: “We need reform of the EU and David Cameron has asked for it, but why would you leave a debate when you have just started it?”

Thorning-Schmidt, who is married to Labour MP and Remain campaigner Stephen Kinnock, added that in Denmark scepticism over the role of the EU is rife, but she maintained that the Danes would back their membership if offered a referendum mirroring the UK's own.

“I think if you asked the Danes if they wanted to leave the EU or stay you would get an overwhelming majority wanting to stay,” she said.

“Danes are tired of the EU but I think deep down Danes know how much we gain economically and culturally in terms of our freedom of being in the EU."

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