RAYLEIGH and Wickford's MP said a second referendum on the country's membership of the EU "would not be appropriate".

Mark Francois advocated the case for leaving the European Union when he appeared on the James Whale Show on talkRADIO on Thursday.

Mr Francois was given a half hour slot on the popular James Whale Show, where he was quizzed by the very punchy radio presenter, accompanied by his colleague Ash.

The interview covered a range of topics including the environment, the situation at Gatwick and Mark’s experiences as an Essex MP.

The main meat of the interview was when James Whale challenged him on whether or not there should be a second referendum on the EU. Mark robustly argued that there should not, not least because the majority in favour of leaving was over a million votes and.

Mr Francois also went on to explain that the cost of the original referendum, according to figures recently released by the Electoral Commission was just shy of £130million and it would not be appropriate to spend another 1/8th of a billion pounds of taxpayers money, to ask them a question that they had already answered two years previously.

He said: “I have been interviewed by James Whale a number of times on the phone down the years so I was glad to accept his invitation to come down to the talkRADIO studios, near Waterloo, and do a proper interview lasting half an hour.

"I hope I was able to explain to talkRADIO listeners why it is so important that we honour the spirit of the referendum and make sure that we leave the European Union, as the public instructed us to do in that historic vote.

"As ever with James Whale there was plenty of banter and I enjoyed the experience and I would venture to say so did he.”