THE House of Commons will vote next week on whether Britain’s continued membership of the European Union should be put to voters in a referendum.

The Commons backbench business committee has ordered a debate on the highly-charged issue for October 27, after more than 100,000 people signed a petition demanding a choice.

Although approval of the motion would not be binding, it would place enormous pressure on David Cameron to respect the will of the Commons and seek the public’s verdict.

The Prime Minister, who has expressed his desire to take back some powers from Brussels, is publicly opposed to such an in/out referendum.

Pulling out was “the wrong answer for Britain”, he told increasingly vocal eurosceptic Tories at the autumn conference in Manchester this month.

“What most people want in this country is not actually to leave the EU, but to reform the EU and make sure that the balance of powers between a country like Britain and Europe is better,” he said – insisting the priority was dealing with the eurozone crisis.

But London mayor Boris Johnson told the conference that giving the public a vote on Britain’s relationship with Brussels for the first time since 1975 was “not a bad idea”.