Cameron outlines his demands to Brussels

David Cameron set out his demands in a letter sent to the president of the EU, Poland’s Donald Tusk, drawing sharp criticism from both sides of the argument and even from among his own ranks.

Former Tory chancellor Lord Lawson has gone on record decrying the goals set out by Cameron as “disappointingly unambitious,” just as some commentators said Cameron made a mistake in 2013 by bowing to pressure from the fringe of British politicians by promising to call a referendum on Britain’s membership.

One dissatisfied Conservative, Bernard Jenkin, angrily stood up in parliament and questioned "is that it? Is that the sum total of the government's position in this renegotiation?"

For some, the debate was all to do with immigration pressures, particularly from the new members of the club, amid a slow economic recovery outside of the UK and Germany.

Others said one of the central aims was to safeguard the City of London and its standing as the world’s premiere financial centre.

Benefit restrictions are necessary to deal with “very high” and “unsustainable” flows of people, Cameron said. A “crackdown on the abuse of free movement is necessary,” he added.

“There should be no discrimination and no disadvantage for any business on the basis of the currency of their country.

"The integrity of the Single Market must be protected,” he said in reference to the increased regulatory pressures on the City and its financial industry.

Nonetheless, he may have offered Brussels a bit of an ‘olive branch’ when he said: “I understand how difficult some of these welfare issues are for some member states, and I'm open to different ways of dealing with this issue.”

A spokesman for European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker labelled the proposals on the migration of workers as “highly problematic” given their impact on the “fundamental freedoms of our internal market. [They amount to] direct discrimination between EU citizens”.

German chancellor Angela Merkel on the other hand stated: "we want to work through these proposals with the aim of working towards a solution"

Economists widely believe that free movement of labour is one of the key benefits of the EU, an indispensable condition for a single currency area and a key driver of economic growth.

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage accused Cameron "of not aiming for any substantial renegotiation", with "no promise to regain the supremacy of Parliament, nothing on ending the free movement of people and no attempt to reduce Britain's massive contribution to the EU budget."

The SNP also took aim at the Prime Minister’s missive, saying that “his own policies that are taking us closer to the exit door than ever before."