LOCAL UKIP leaders have called the Prime Minister’s EU referendum talk “pie in the sky”.

David Cameron announced on Wednesday morning a vote on whether to stay in the EU will be held by 2017 if the Conservative win the next General Election.

Despite being pleased a referendum date has been earmarked, UKIP Brentwood branch chairman David Watt said he still thinks it will be too hard to leave the union.

Mr Watt said: “My first thought is why wait until 2017 and how long will it take to renegotiate the terms of our membership.

“I think the vote should be more immediate, but I think what Cameron has proposed is fundamentally unrealistic.

“I feel what Cameron said this morning was just an attempt to keep people in his own party happy.

“If I believed he would get us out of Europe, I would vote for Cameron, but I don’t. It is all just pie in the sky really.”

UKIP MEP for East of England Stuart Agnew also slated the speech saying the Prime Minister has not offered the right solution.

Mr Agnew said: “Whilst I am pleased that the option of coming out of the EU is now openly on the political agenda, Mr Cameron is attempting to sandbag the British people with a re-negotiation which he is not in a position to offer.

“He is like a football manager asking for his team to be allowed to have an extra goalkeeper and two handballs before a penalty can be given against them.

“The other teams aren’t going to allow it. What he is suggesting simply isn’t on offer.”

Richard Howitt, Labour MEP for East of England, said the Tory party are holding back their leader.

Mr Howitt said: “The real tragedy of David Cameron’s speech is that David Cameron’s Party won’t let him address the need for change in the EU in a sensible and pragmatic way.

“David Cameron says he wants to be in the EU but for many in his Party, getting David Cameron to commit now to an in/out referendum is not about consent, but about exit.”