Whenever the debate moves on to hard numbers - our deficit with Europe, our surplus with the rest of the world, our Brussels budget contributions, the tiny part of our economy dependent on sales to the EU, the vast part subjected to EU regulation - Euro-enthusiasts quickly shift their ground and start harrumphing about influence.

In April 2009 he criticised an EC Directive that would end the exemption in British law for religious groups to discriminate on grounds on conscience. Why America Must Not Follow Europe. Towards 1996: Britain in a Multi-Speed Europe.

He currently serves on the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. He is also the Secretary-General of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR). Hannan's ideology is localism and he has written several books arguing for democratic reform.