A British exit from the European Union is "unimaginable", according to a senior German politician, who urged the UK to stay in the bloc to help resist a lurch towards interventionist policies.

Michael Fuchs, a member of Angela Merkel's party and deputy chairman of the ruling CDU-CSU coalition, said the British goals of a more efficient single market with less red tape were aligned with Germany's.

"I want the UK to stay in the EU, and I cannot even imagine an EU without the UK. I don't want to imagine it," he said.

"In particular, for us it's not good because the UK is a partner promoting a free-market economy, much more than the southern hemisphere in Europe. [Some of these countries] want to have a more state-regulated economy, and the UK is more like us, for instance, like Holland and the northern hemisphere, so we would not be very happy to see it go."

Mr Fuchs described Brussels as a "huge" bureaucracy that needed to be scaled back. "I fully agree with certain statements of [Prime Minister] David Cameron saying that Brussels need not be such a huge bureaucracy, with so much red tape.

"That's quite important, I think, and we need Cameron's help to change it."

David Fuller's view

Well good, but these are empty words without some clear progress in reining back Brussels’ huge bureaucracy on the part of EU leaders.  I am not aware that this is happening and would certainly like to hear about it, if it is taking place.

Meanwhile, my guess is that if the UK’s referendum was held this week, we would be voting to leave the EU.