Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas has said he is "under no constitutional obligation" to stand down as an assembly member.

The former Plaid Cymru leader left the party on Friday to sit as an independent.
He told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement programme that people in his Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency were "disappointed and concerned" about his decision.
Others understand his reasoning to put Wales ahead of the party, he said.
Lord Elis-Thomas left the party to sit as an independent over claims Plaid Cymru wasn't "serious" about taking part in the Labour-led Welsh Government.
Plaid Cymru said he had "misled" constituents and it would call for a by-election as soon as possible.
But Lord-Elis Thomas insisted he had a mandate to remain as an AM.
"My mandate is what appeared in my election literature," he told the programme.
'More honest vote'
"All this talk of a by-election is to mislead the electorate. I am under no constitutional obligation.
"I am an independent member formerly elected as Plaid Cymru and that will be my position throughout this assembly."
His former colleague, the Plaid AM Rhun ap Iorwerth, said it would be "just" for Lord Elis-Thomas to allow a by-election.
"I, and others, including people who have been colleagues for many years in the party in Dwyfor Meirionydd, say the just thing for him to do would be to seek that mandate he doesn't really have currently.
"There are people who have worked with him closely feel let down and disappointed and they are saying let's have another vote, a more honest vote this time."
Lord Elis-Thomas said that while some people are distressed, others understand his reasoning to put Wales ahead of the party, "when that party seems to be unable to take responsibility for running its own country."


"You're off," the words no sportsman really wants to hear.

Even more so when you're in the middle of a Grand Final.
But that's exactly what happened to Wigan's Ben Flower during Super League's showpiece with St Helens at Old Trafford on Saturday night.
He'd barely got his shorts dirty, when in the second minute, he punched Lance Hohaia to the floor and then landed a second blow while on the ground.
The 26-year-old became the first player ever to be sent off in a rugby league Grand Final.
He's not the only player to have got caught up in the big occasion.
We have to start with this one.
Eager to impress his Spice Girl girlfriend and millions of fans, David Beckham got a little carried away during a World Cup match in France.
After being tumbled to the ground, the former Manchester United midfielder kicked out at Diego Simeone.
England eventually lost on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
The fastest dismissal in the history of Test rugby league.
Great Britain's Adrian Morley was shown a red card for a high tackle on Robbie Kearns after just 12 seconds.
His side eventually lost the game and Morley was was fined Â£2,000 at a disciplinary hearing.
A red card for Wales captain Sam Warburton at the 2011 World Cup arguably cost them a place in the final.
His side were reduced to 14 men for nearly an hour after he was dismissed for a dangerous tackle in the semi-final.
Referee Alain Rolland deemed a tackle on Vincent Clerc worthy of a red card much to the surprise of the crowd and Warburton himself.
Wales eventually lost 9-8.
Its one of the Premier League's most talked about red cards.
After a scuffle with Arsenal's Martin Keown, the Italian ended up being shown a red card.
But that wasn't the end of it.
The striker lost his temper and gesticulated at the official before pushing him in the chest.
What happened next was once described by Buzz Lightyear as "falling with style". Referee Paul Alcock lost his balance and fell to the floor.
Di Canio was banned for 11 matches and fined Â£10,000.
Ok so Gazza didn't receive a red card at Italia 90, but a booking picked up in the semi-final did mean he would miss the final.
And boy, did he feel it.
Gascoigne broke down in tears when the referee showed him a yellow card.
Luckily for him, England lost on penalties and never reached the showpiece.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat and on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube


A Star Wars sci-fi convention has been set up for people with disabilities.

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24 October 2014 Last updated at 12:41 BST
Feel the Force Day was set up so that as many people as possible could access and experience Star Wars.
Co-founder JJ Lucia-Wright was inspired to help organise the event after spending the past 10 years teaching a friend who is deaf and blind about the films.
People attending were encouraged to stroke a Wookiee, sniff the scent of the Millennium Falcon and hug Princess Leia.


Three men in France have been jailed for faking a terror threat on a train to steal passengers' phones - only five days after the Paris attacks.

The group was travelling between Beziers and Perpignan in the southern Pyrenees region when they commandeered the train's intercom system.
They then played a Muslim call to prayer and told passengers to hand over their phones or face an attack.
They were found guilty of extortion and sentenced to up to 30 months in prison.
One of their lawyers said it was "a joke in very bad taste by foolish youths".
None of those sentenced, aged between 19 and 23 and from Beziers, was named by the court in Perpignan.
"It wasn't serious," the main defendant told the court. "We were just joking around. I have always condemned Islamic State and everything that happened in Paris."
One of the men, who is 21 years old and had converted to Islam, was also found guilty of supporting terrorism after police found pictures of him posing with an assault rifle and a jihadist banner on his phone.


The NHS is setting up a stem cell factory in Liverpool to treat people with diabetes.

NHS Blood and Transplant wants to make and give the experimental therapy to patients at high risk of developing diabetes-related kidney problems.
It is hoped the injections will slow down or stop tissue damage, removing the need for dialysis or transplants.
Diabetes is the most common cause of end stage kidney disease, which kills around 40,000 people a year in the UK.
The 48 patients taking part in the study will be treated at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Belfast Health and Social Care Trust or at another trial site in Italy.
The injection of cells they will receive are called stromal cells and they are grown from donated human bone marrow.
These immature cells can grow and change into a variety of tissue - bone, cartilage and fat. But it is their ability to release proteins that reduce inflammation in the kidney which interests the researchers.
In animal studies, stromal cell injections have provided measurable improvements in kidney function and it is hoped they will do the same in people.
Only some of the patients in the study will get the real jab (at different doses). The others will get a dummy injection. This will let the investigators check whether the treatment really works and if it has any side effects.
Project leader Prof Timothy O'Brien, from the National University of Ireland, Galway, said: "Diabetic kidney disease is very common so any therapy that could slow the progression of this disease would have a significant impact."
About three in four people with diabetes will develop kidney disease. It is caused by damage to the small blood vessels that supply the kidneys. But it can be prevented or delayed by keeping blood sugar and blood pressure levels under tight control.
Dr Eric Austin, head of Stem Cell Immunotherapy at NHS Blood and Transplant's site in Speke, Liverpool, said: "This is an exciting project for us to be involved with - especially as the treatment has the potential to lead to lifesaving outcomes for a major illness."
The research project, NEPHSTROM, is being funded by a 6m euro grant from the European Union Horizon 2020 programme.


Sometimes it is hard to comprehend the size of things in astronomy.

Just our Solar System, the little corner of the Milky Way in which we live, is vast.
Venetia Burney, the 11-year-old girl who in 1930 suggested the name "Pluto" for the newly discovered "planet", remembered playing games in Oxford's University Parks that would try to convey this scale.
She and her school chums would hang a two-foot-wide orb on the gates to represent the Sun, and then space out a caraway seed for Mercury and peas to signify Venus and the Earth.
Neptune was a lump of clay and sited a mile and a quarter from the gates.
"And then we were told the nearest star would be in China, and that really stuck with me," she recalled in a BBC interview.
Before she died in 2009, Venetia got to see the launch of Nasa's New Horizons probe to Pluto. It's even got an instrument on it that is named after her.
New Horizons was the fastest spacecraft ever despatched from Earth.
And on Tuesday, after nine-and-a-half years of travel at immense speed, it will finally reach the diminutive world, some 4.7 billion km away.
A few things have changed in the intervening years.
The first surely everyone now knows: Pluto is no longer regarded as a main planet and has been re-categorised as a "dwarf planet".
The second feeds into the first, and that is the recognition of just how numerous planetary bodies of all sizes are, not just within our Solar System, but around all the stars we see "beyond China".
Who'd have thought that some of these stars would have super-Earths and colossal Jupiters?
The arguments still rage over whether Pluto should be included in the planetary mnemonics that children learn in school.
But in many ways this is a distraction - and a distraction from something that is actually more interesting and really quite exciting.
Think about it for a moment: If the "classical nine" planets were all there were, then Tuesday would represent an ending. It would be the completion of a quest to map out our Solar System.
As it is, we now like to think of the reconnaissance of Pluto as just the start of something, as the beginning of the exploration of the "third zone".
If the first and second zones encompass the rocky inner planets like Earth and the outer gas giants like Saturn, then this third sector covers all the smaller bodies like Pluto that orbit billions of km from the Sun. And they are legion.
This third zone, known as the Kuiper Belt, probably contains hundreds of thousands of objects 100km and more across. Pluto, at about 2,300km wide, just happens to be the current "King of Kuiper Belt".
"Pluto is the biggest and brightest, and, as far as we know, it's the most interesting of this third class of planets," Alan Stern, the principal investigator on New Horizons, told BBC Newsnight.
"It was a wonderful discovery that our Solar System has this extra class and that - surprise, surprise - it is the most populous class. It's amazing: we had a completely upside-down view until the 1990s."
And not just in our Solar System. It is very probable that the dwarf planets are the most abundant type of planet in the Milky Way as a whole.
And remember, they will not all be dull balls of ice and rock.
As we're seeing on the approach to Pluto, many will have active processes shaping their surfaces. Some, just like Pluto, will even have atmospheres with evolving climates.
New Horizons should be thought of then as a sentinel.
It's the first mission designed to go and investigate this third domain.
After passing Pluto, it will be directed to a second Kuiper Belt object, which it will reach in another four years or so.
More missions will no doubt follow. Our problem currently is knowing where to direct them.
Present telescopes struggle to see the third zone, to pick out the candidates most worthy of a spacecraft encounter.
But this is all about to change.  We're now building a new generation of monster observatories whose primary mirrors will be 30-40m across.  These new telescopes will have the sensitivity and the resolution to open up the Kuiper Belt to a new era of study.
If you run the models, based on our best understanding, you would have expected a thousand or so Plutos to have been around in the early days of the Solar System, more than four billion years ago.  But then we think there was a big re-organisation, and many of these objects would either have been destroyed in collisions, or scattered by close encounters with their own kind and the bigger planets.
Some will still be there, albeit perhaps further away than the Kuiper Belt, in an even more distant realm called the Oort Cloud.
"If these models are correct, we should expect to find dramatically more small planets, and possibly some large planets that were also scattered out there - Earth-sized and Mars-sized," says Prof Stern.
Just a final aside on Pluto's demotion from "full" planet status.
I got the chance the other day to talk about New Horizons with the famous radio astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell. It was she who facilitated the technical meeting a few months after the probe's launch in 2006 that downgraded Pluto.
She could not be more excited about the next few days.
"I think New Horizons has come out of it very well," she told BBC Newsnight.
"By going to visit Pluto and one or two other objects in the Kuiper Belt, it is going to a zone that hasn't previously been explored. And I think it's brilliant.
"Being able to send spacecraft out that far is going to lead to a lot of new information and, hopefully, new understanding."
You can watch a preview of the New Horizons flyby on Monday on BBC Two's Newsnight programme at 22:30 BST. The BBC will also be screening a special Sky At Night programme called Pluto Revealed on Monday 20 July, which will recap all the big moments from the New Horizons flyby.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos


Western business people returning to Iran in the wake of the nuclear deal may be surprised to find plenty of entrepreneurial drive from a new generation of online start-ups, which have appeared despite years of international sanctions.

If Amazon chief Jeff Bezos were to go to Iran today, he would find a lot that looks very familiar.
Digikala is an Amazon-style Iranian company offering free, same-day delivery of digital gadgets.
Set up by brothers Hamid and Saeed Mohammadi, it's the country's sixth most visited website, with a staff of 900 and about 850,000 visitors every day.
"Eight years ago, digital cameras were all the rage," says Hamid.  "My brother and I were looking to buy one, but we couldn't find a single Farsi review online."
They ended up buying a camera locally only to discover that the lens wasn't genuine.
"It got us thinking - what if there was a site where you could read all the reviews and reliably buy the product?"
That initial experience led to the creation of a company that combines an online retailing arm with a review site similar to CNet, the US technical review giant.
"We have our own studio and a 100-strong content team," says Hamid. "They test the products and shoot and edit reviews for our Digikala TV."
In many ways Digikala has benefited from what Prof Nader Habibi, of Brandeis University, in the United States, calls the empty playground caused by sanctions
"Companies who rely on foreign trade and imports were harmed the most [by sanctions]," he told the BBC.
"But for domestic digital companies sanctions just kept out reputable brands like Amazon and Google. It actually gave them an opportunity to raise their market share."
In 2014, the World Startup Report, a US-based organisation that monitors new online businesses, valued Digikala at $150m (Â£100m).
Today, the company says it is worth more than $500m.
Despite the damage that sanctions have done to the Iranian economy overall, Digikala has no shortage of customers willing to spend big money on items like top-of-the range smartphones.
For Hamid, this is no contradiction.
"Iran has one of the youngest, most highly educated populations in the region," he says. "For them, technology isn't a luxury. It's the fabric of their lives. They will get it, even if it is difficult to afford."
Source: World Startup Report 2014
Digikala is just one of many internet companies that have sprung up in Iran, taking advantage of a huge spike in internet use over the past two years.
Another popular site is Cafe Bazaar, an Android app store that now has an 85% market share, serving Iranians Google could not reach because of sanctions.
Its bestselling list includes both the globally popular Clash of Clans and locally developed games such as The Bike, which sends up Tehran's notoriously risk-taking motorcyclists.
Takhfifan is a successful Iranian clone of Groupon, offering everything from discounted restaurant deals to spa days and theatre tickets.
On Fidibo, Iran's answer to online book retailer Kindle, recent bestsellers have included George Orwell's 1984, several books by Stephen Hawking, a biography of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, and US President Barack Obama's autobiography, The Audacity of Hope.
And then there's Maman-Paz (meaning "Cooked by a Mum"), which connects hungry office workers to housewives selling home-cooked meals.
The appearance of sites such as these means many Iranians now live their lives between two parallel worlds - the cyber-universe of gadgets, gaming and high-end consumerism, and the more familiar Iran of ultra-conservative clerics, public executions and anti-Western slogans.
The other official Iran is still very much in existence of course, but it no longer has sole control over the narrative, says sociologist Hossein Ghazian, a former adviser to ex-President Mohammad Khatami.
"In Iran you used to have the hegemony of a central official culture," he told the BBC.  "Not any more."
Iran's National Internet Development Centre says internet penetration now stands at 73%, making Iran one of the biggest internet users in the Middle East.
Young Iranians in particular are so connected to the world, that they are now "the least anti-Western oriented" people in the region, says Prof Fawas Gerges, of the London School of Economics.
It's a sign of how things are changing that many conservative politicians are now turning to social media to get their message across to the younger generation.
Twitter and Facebook may still be blocked in Iran, but that doesn't stop the country's top brass, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, from regularly using both sites.
"The conservatives' use of these new platforms is not without consequence," says Hossein Ghazian.
"In order to use them, they have to change themselves. They have to carve themselves and their message so that they can fit into this new world. It will subconsciously change them."
In a conservative, authoritarian country such as Iran, entrepreneurs are obviously taking risks and pushing boundaries by running Western-style online businesses.
In interviews they are careful to steer well away from politics, but there are signs that the tide is beginning to turn.
"When 4G first came, it was supposed to be forbidden," says Digikala's Hamid Mohammadi.
"But now, increasing bandwidth is the government's top priority and 4G is everywhere.
"The internet," he pauses, "...is doing its own thing."


The co-pilot of the crashed Germanwings plane, Andreas Lubitz, had received treatment for suicidal tendencies before getting his pilot licence, investigators say, but not recently.

Lubitz, 27, is suspected of deliberately crashing the plane in the Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
Officials in Duesseldorf said the investigation to this point had revealed no clue to any motive.
So far, DNA strands of 80 of the victims have been found.
Duesseldorf public prosecutor Christoph Kumpa said that "several years" before Lubitz became a pilot he "had at that time been in treatment of a psychotherapist because of what is documented as being suicidal".
But he added: "In the following period, and until recently, further doctor's visits took place, resulting in sick notes without any suicidal tendencies or aggression against others being recorded."
No specific dates were given. Lubitz enrolled in training with Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, in 2008 and became a pilot in 2013. He was diagnosed with a serious depressive episode in 2009 and received treatment for a year and a half, media reports say.
Andreas Lubitz: Germanwings co-pilot
Who was Andreas Lubitz?
Lufthansa said Lubitz's medical records were subject to doctor-patient confidentiality and it had not had any knowledge of their contents.
A spokeswoman for the German health ministry said doctors could break confidentiality if it was thought the patient represented a danger to other people.
Mr Kumpa added: "There still is no evidence that the co-pilot said beforehand that he would do what we have to assume was done and we haven't found a letter or anything like that that contains a confession."
Mr Kumpa said: "We have not found anything in his surrounding [environment] - be it personal or his family or his professional surrounding - that is giving us any hints that enable us to say anything about his motivation."
There had been some media reports that Lubitz had problems with his vision, possibly a detached retina.
But Mr Kumpa said there was no documentation on any eyesight problems that were caused by an "organic illness".
There has also been widespread speculation about Lubitz's romantic life.
One unconfirmed report has suggested his long-term girlfriend was pregnant, while an ex-girlfriend revealed that he vowed last year to do something memorable.
"One day I'm going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember," she quoted him as saying.
Flight 4U 9525 crashed near the French Alpine village of Le Vernet on 24 March, flying from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
The cockpit voice recorder suggested Lubitz crashed the plane deliberately after locking pilot Patrick Sondenheimer out of the cockpit.
Capt Sondenheimer is heard banging on the door, screaming, "Open the damn door!"
The data recorder, which tracks the plane's altitude, speed and direction, has not yet been found.
Lufthansa board chairman Kay Kratky on Monday warned it may have been too badly damaged and may not be sending signals.
Bad weather has halted helicopter flights to the site, forcing investigators to get there on foot.
An access road to the remote site is being dug by a bulldozer to provide all-terrain vehicles with access to the area and could be completed by Monday evening.
A support centre for victims' families has been opened at a hotel in Marseille, from where Germanwings plans to provide counselling and visits to the crash site.
In Germany, a 100-strong task force is investigating the crash. While 50 police work on the murder inquiry, the others are obtaining DNA samples to help identify victims' remains.
An official memorial service for those on board flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf will be held on 17 April in Germany's most famous church - Cologne Cathedral - in the presence of President Joachim Gauck and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Unanswered questions
What drives people to murder-suicide?


Newcastle ran in six tries as they overcame Harlequins at Kingston Park.

After Michael Young and Quins' Rob Buchanan traded tries, scores from Juan Pablo Socino and Mark Wilson gave the hosts a 21-8 advantage at the break.
Socino's second extended Newcastle's lead but a brace from Karl Dickson brought Quins to within four points.
Tries from Evan Olmstead and Marcus Watson secured victory, but the visitors grabbed two bonus points with Tim Visser's late converted try.
Both sides capitalised on periods of poor defending, with Newcastle losing focus to allow Quins to come back from 26-8 to make it 26-22 with 20 minutes to go thanks to Dickson's quick brace.
However, Dean Richards' Falcons rallied to secure back-to-back league wins for the first time since February.
Newcastle's fifth victory in 10 Premiership games matches their tally from last season and they move level on points with sixth-placed Harlequins.
The south-west London side are yet to win away from home in the top flight this season.
Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards:
"The side's evolving.
"When you look at who we've got out injured it probably gives you an idea of the strength in depth we've got within the squad now.
"The key people who have come in, like Niki Goneva and Evan Olmstead, are playing outstandingly well and Juan Pablo Socino is playing better than ever.
"I'm delighted with the six tries. There were some absolute pearlers in there."
Harlequins director of rugby John Kingston:
"We're clearly not being competitive enough on the road.
"Until such time as we sort that out, we're going to find ourselves slightly frustrated during the course of the season."
Newcastle: Delany; Goneva, Burdon, Socino, Tait; Hodgson, Young; Vickers, Lawson, Olmstead, Witty, Chick, Wilson (capt), Hogg.
Replacements: Sowrey, Rogers, Welsh, Fonua, Civetta, Takulua, Watson, Waldouck.
Harlequins: Morris; Alofa, Marchant, Roberts, Visser; Swiel, Dickson; Lambert, Buchanan, Collier, Matthews, Horwill (capt), Chisholm, Wallace, Clifford.
Replacements: Ward, Evans, Jones, Merrick, Naoupu, Mulchrone, Jackson, Walker.
Referee: Ian Tempest.
Attendance: 6,054.


A video of a pop song that highlights the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia has amassed millions of views on social media.

The video entitled 'Hwages', loosely translated in English as 'Concerns', shows women in Saudi Arabia skateboarding, playing basketball and dancing.
Created by media production company 8ies, the video has been viewed nearly three million times on YouTube since it was uploaded in late December.
It features women in full Islamic dress taking part in various activities, singing lyrics that include: 'If only God would rid us of men'.
The video appears to express women's frustration with the male-dominated society in Saudi Arabia.
Male guardians decide on what women can do, for example permission to travel abroad or to undertake higher education.
On YouTube, one user commented: "Unbelievable video clip!! The voice is bad and the content is worse.. Imagine the girls drive (cars) and men are dressed like that and dance. May Allah protect us."
While another added: "The video clip is beautiful. With all the comedy, it shows one aspect of oppression girls are subjected to."
A third commenter said: "Foreign newspapers are mentioning it. Creatives - let the world know that there are talented people who appreciate art in Saudi Arabia. It is not all about religious police, clerics IS members and retardation."
It's the latest content on social media to put the male guardianship system in Saudi Arabia under the spotlight.
In 2013, a Saudi comedian recorded the song No Woman No Drive about women not being allowed to drive.
Written by Andree Massiah, UGC & Social News team


A soldier who abducted and stabbed his comrade and love rival in Windsor has been convicted of attempted murder.

John Watson, 35, lay in wait for the victim to leave the house of his ex-wife, with whom the victim was having a relationship with.
He then tied him up, bundled him into his car and stabbed him before eventually he was saved by police.
Watson was convicted by a unanimous jury at Reading Crown Court on Thursday.
The court heard the men became friends while stationed together at Combermere Barracks, near Windsor, last year.
The relationship broke down after the victim started a relationship with Watson's former partner following the breakdown of their respective marriages.
The 28-year-old victim sustained a number of injuries, including a stab wound to his side and left elbow, as well as damage to a tendon in his finger which required surgery.
Watson had already been found guilty of one count of kidnap in relation to the attack, and pleaded guilty to one count of possession of an offensive weapon.
Investigating officer Det Con Lyndsey Shaw said: "This was a callous and premeditated act on the part of John Watson.
"Fortunately the victim did not suffer any long lasting injury and physically he has been able to move on from this ordeal".
Watson is due to be sentenced at the same court on 9 February.


Eurozone finance ministers have rejected a Greek request to extend a bailout programme beyond 30 June.

A Eurogroup statement said Greece had broken off negotiations over a new bailout deal "unilaterally".
Late on Friday, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras called a surprise referendum for 5 July over the terms of any new deal.
Greece has to pay €1.6bn (£1.1bn) to the IMF on 30 June. Without new funds, there are fears Greece may leave the euro and its economy may collapse.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said Greece would still try to secure a bailout deal that could then be put to a referendum.
"In these crucial moments, the Greek government is fighting for there to be a last-minute deal by Tuesday," he said.
The Greek parliament is due to vote later on whether to ratify the referendum.
Addressing MPs just before the vote, Mr Tsipras urged the Greek people to say a "resounding 'no' to ultimatums" by creditors.
Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said it would be up to the European Central Bank (ECB) to decide whether to continue providing emergency liquidity funding to the Greek banking system.
In Greece, queues have formed outside banks amid concerns that the Greek central bank might start restricting withdrawals.
It's never over till it's over. But it feels like the end is perilously close. The breakdown in talks between Greece and its creditors has to be seen as a failure.
It wasn't supposed to happen like this. It is also a massive gamble on all sides, and a possible turning point in the history of the eurozone. There will still be those working feverishly behind the scenes for compromise, but in effect neither side has blinked yet.
When the Greek government thought it had made substantial concessions at the beginning of the week, the creditors said it simply wasn't enough. And while no-one can say for certain that Greece will leave the eurozone, this is already uncharted territory.
Much will depend on the outcome of the referendum called by PM Alexis Tsipras, if it takes place on schedule. And much will also depend on the European Central Bank - and whether it believes it can still allow funds to flow, to prevent banks in Greece from collapsing.
ECB faces huge decision
Can Greece stay in the euro?
Crisis talks: As they happened
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, told the BBC that because the European part of Greece's bailout programme would have expired by 5 July, any referendum would relate to "proposals and arrangements which are no longer valid".
But she said that if there was a "resounding 'yes'" to staying in the eurozone, then the response would be "a resounding 'let us try'".
Mr Dijsselbloem said the Eurogroup would continue to work with Greece and that many scenarios were conceivable.
But he placed the blame squarely with Greece for walking out of negotiations on Friday.
"They broke off their talks while they were still going on, while there was still time," he said.
"The only positive caveat I see is that the Greek parliament still has to take a wise position on that, and I hope that may lead to a different political situation."
French Finance Minister Michel Sapin stressed that all the Eurogroup's members wanted Greece to remain in the eurozone.
"This is not a Greek exit from the eurozone," he said after crisis talks between the Eurogroup and Mr Varoufakis on Saturday. "The 18 countries, apart from Greece, all said clearly that Greece was in the euro and should remain in the euro whatever the difficulties of the moment."
Throughout the ups and downs of the recent negotiations, Greeks have by and large resisted the urge to withdraw money from their accounts, pinning their hopes on a last minute deal with the country's creditors.
But as the deadline for Greece's €1.6bn payment to the IMF looms, and with Mr Tsipras calling for a referendum next week, lines have begun to form outside ATMs and bank branches in Athens.
One bank has imposed withdrawal limits of €3,000 per account, and some ATMs have handwritten "empty" signs on them - although I managed to withdraw cash at two separate locations.
Some customers were given a ticket number and told to come back in a few hours. One man told me he was 170th in line. "The game is over," said Peter, one of those queuing. "Greece is going into uncharted waters, and the banks will be closed on Monday, I suspect."
Anxiety is mounting in Athens. "Everybody's really scared," Elena, a woman in her 20s, tells me as she waits to withdraw cash. "We need to have enough money to last the week."
How did Greece get in this mess?
What if the Greek talks fail
Mr Varoufakis told reporters that the Eurogroup's refusal to extend the bailout could permanently damage the credibility of the group.
He said that what had been proposed to Greece "did not contain any plan for giving, instilling hope in investors, both Greek and non-Greek, in consumers, in depositors".
He said his government had asked for an extension of "a few days, a couple of weeks", whereas Mr Dijsselbloem said an extension of one month had been requested.
Greece owes roughly €340bn, mostly to its eurozone partners. Because it can no longer borrow from the international money markets, it is dependent on the eurozone and IMF to keep its banks functioning.


The rape of a woman in Wythenshawe Park is being investigated by police.

It follows reports that a 25-year-old woman was attacked as she walked on a footpath in Wythenshawe Park at about 04:00 BST on Sunday.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has appealed for any witnesses or anyone in the area at the time of the attack to come forward.
The investigation is ongoing and extra patrols have been set up in the area, said police.


The world of sport has been paying tribute to the victims of Friday's deadly attacks in Paris.

Several sporting fixtures in France have been postponed after a series of attacks across the capital, in which at least 129 people were killed and more than 350 were wounded.
All European Rugby Champions Cup and Challenge Cup matches set to be played in France this weekend are off.
Respects were paid to the victims of the attacks at sporting events around the world.


Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has confirmed that he will be seeking election as an MLA for Foyle.

His decision to stand in his home constituency was rubber-stamped by Sinn Féin at a selection conference in Londonderry.
Mr McGuinness will not be standing in Mid Ulster, where he is currently an MLA.
The party believes the move will help it to win another seat in Foyle.
Speaking at the conference, Mr McGuinness said it "hasn't been an easy decision".
"I have served as an MLA and MP in mid-Ulster for 19 years and it has been my great honour and privilege to do so.
"I have a very deep affection for the people of south Derry.
"I leave mid-Ulster with a heavy heart, but I do so safe in the knowledge that Sinn Fein has never been stronger there."
Mr McGuinness said he believes Sinn Féin could emerge in the future as the largest political party in Northern Ireland.
"I believe I can help to build on the fantastic work that Maeve McLaughlin and Raymond McCartney have already been doing.
"I want to see this city and region thriving and making the most of the massive potential that we have here."
Martin McGuinness was elected as the MP for Mid Ulster in 1997.
He won an assembly seat in the same constituency the following year.
In the last assembly election, Sinn Féin returned two candidates in Foyle, Martina Anderson and Raymond McCartney, with two and half quotas.
Its overall share of the vote was 1% behind the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), which claimed three seats.
The Democratic Unionist Party has one MLA in Foyle.


The author of a government report on work practices has criticised the "cash-in-hand economy".

Matthew Taylor said cash jobs were often untaxed and worth up to Â£6bn a year.
Mr Taylor said he hoped transaction platforms such as PayPal and WorldPay would see cash-in-hand work eased out of favour.
The BBC spoke to a selection of workers and employers to find out if cash was still king for them.
Debbie Took has been teaching or tutoring Maths for 25 years. She sees about 30 students a week from her home in Reading.
"I'm a private tutor and parents pay me by cash or cheque," she says.
"I declare all earnings and a cheque is as welcome as cash, whatever is easiest for the parent.
"I've had parents pay by bank transfer or internet banking in the past and some forget to pay me.
"Many of my students come in without their parents. Payment by phone would need the parent to be present.
"Cheques are easy. I have one in my hand at the time of tutoring and know instantly that I have been paid."
Julian Thorpe, from Bradford, runs a plumbing and heating business.
He says the onus should not just be on workers, but also on customers seeking a bargain.
"People ask if it is any cheaper for cash," he says. "We then get undercut by people who say they will do it for cash.
"It makes no difference to me what I'm paid in. It all has to go in the bank.
"There are many people who work their day jobs and then do these jobs for a bit of extra money - using their firm's van, tools and materials and getting paid in cash.
"For me it's a moral thing to pay tax. It funds the NHS, social care and everything else.
"People don't see that sometimes. They have got mortgages to pay and mouths to feed."
Sam Welbourne, from Glastonbury, has worked in the gig economy since his software business collapsed after the 2008 financial crisis.
He believes concerns about cash-in-hand work shows government is focusing on the wrong people.
"I have worked a great deal in the gig economy and never managed to raise enough tax.
"If this is made harder because of ideas about paying tax it makes my poverty worse.
"I declare everything and keep honest accounts. I feel sick that the government wants to paint me as the bad guy.
"I know loads of people who work freelance in one way or another.
"Where I am in Somerset there are people sleeping in sheds and back gardens trying to make ends meet wherever they can. There is no security from month to month."
Louie Birch, from Suffolk, runs a window-cleaning business and does not pay his two employees in cash.
"I was disappointed the first thing you hear about is window cleaners," he said.
"We're trying to make the trade more professional. All of my clients are offered the opportunity to use direct debit.
"If they're set up with our details we leave a receipt through the door when we clean and they can then transfer the payment into the business account.
"It makes the business run more effectively. For me it's the way forward.
"There's very little cash involved in my business."
By UGC and Social News team


A seven-month-old boy who starved to death could have been saved, a serious case review has found.

The boy, known as Baby Imran, died in January 2014 after being neglected by his mother and grandmother, who were later jailed for eight years each.
A serious case review by Luton Safeguarding Children Board said intervention by health visitors could have prevented his death.
It apportions the blame to their workload and lack of training.
Jessica and Angela Price were convicted at Luton Crown Court of not seeking help as Imran lost 17% of his body weight in just a few days while under their care, and for allowing his death.
During their trial, the court heard how the boy had sunken eyes as a result of dehydration.
The serious case review found that hospital and community-based services raised concerns about the conditions in the family home, as there was "a house full of 'clutter', dirt due to pet bird droppings, safety hazards, smoke due to heavy cigarette smoking, cramped living conditions and bed sharing.
It said indicators of a mother struggling to cope with three young children in "less than favourable conditions were not recognised".
"In turn, this placed all of the children at risk of further neglect and emotional harm," the review said. "No one single agency took an assertive lead on the management, assessment and intervention of the case, despite opportunities being presented to do so.
"(The child's) critical needs were not sufficiently recognised at a time when there was an emerging picture of the mother failing to engage with services."
The organisations involved included Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, Cambridgeshire Community Services and Luton Borough Council.
The NSPCC said the "distressing case" highlighted the "huge workloads" child protection professionals have to cope with.
"However, opportunities to help him were sadly missed and information gathered about the family over a four-year period was never properly shared," a spokesman said.
"While the mother and grandmother, found guilty of allowing Imran's death, were evasive and deceitful it is clear that more effective communication and intervention could have saved his life."
The case review made several suggestions for the individual agencies.


A councillor has called for an investigation after Ofsted found a primary school was "unsafe and chaotic".

Its report rated Wayfield Primary School in Chatham, Kent, "inadequate" and warned the safety and well-being of the 230 pupils was "at risk".
Ofsted described leadership and management as "weak at all levels".
Wayfield is part of the Griffin Trust academy chain, which said teacher shortages were "challenging".
One pupil described to the BBC how she tries to stay at home to avoid being bullied.
She said: "All the time when I cried, the teachers kept saying go sit in the book corner."
Ofsted said misbehaviour during the inspection in May was "serious and dangerous".
It revealed its own inspectors had to "intervene directly to protect the children" after fighting broke out in an infant lesson and in the lunch hall when, "although staff were present, they neither dealt with the misbehaviour nor appeared to notice it".
Ofsted said the headteacher "works hard but cannot do all that is needed by himself".
Medway Labour councillor Tristan Osborne said he would call on the regional School Commissioner to investigate its trustees.
The Griffin Trust said:  "Our school improvement team continue to work hard with Wayfield Primary to address the points raised by Ofsted.
"In the face of current teacher shortages, securing a strong leadership team for Wayfield Primary School has proved challenging."
Wayfield Primary is to be transferred to the Primary First Trust from 1 September under a new head.


Former world champion Vincenzo Abbagnale will miss the Olympics after the Italian rower was given a 16-month ban for missing three doping tests.

The 23-year-old, who is the son of Italian rowing federation president Giuseppe Abbagnale, won gold in the coxed pairs in the 2013 World Championships in South Korea.
He says an incident with his car while at a training camp on 1 February caused him to miss the third test.
His ban expires on 19 October 2017.


(Close): London shares ended Friday just 5 points higher, dragged down by the mining sector, as Marks and Spencer fell another 1%.

Shares in Marks and Spencer closed 4p lower at 386.5p - a 12% fall from the 440p they stood at before the retailer said on Wednesday that profits would fall under a turnaround plan.
The FTSE 100 closed 5 points higher at 6,270.79 points.
The index posted its biggest weekly gain for six weeks.
Miner Antofagasta reversed its early gains to end down 2.5%, while Anglo American was the top faller, shedding 2.7%.
Royal Mail was the biggest riser on the blue-chip index, ending 2% higher at 532.5p.
Traders said the stock was helped by news that the Unite union had cancelled proposed strike action, as well as a report of a possible merger between Belgian and Dutch mail operators Bpost and PostNL.
Oil lost its gains made on Thursday with Brent crude trading at $49.21, down 0.8%.
On the currency markets, the pound was down slightly against the dollar at $1.4654, but was up a touch against the euro at â‚¬1.3121.


The former MP Michelle Gildernew has been dropped as a Sinn Féin candidate for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency in the Stormont elections.

She has been replaced on the ticket by the current MLA, Phil Flanagan, who missed out on selection at a previous selection convention six weeks ago.
In December, Ms Gildernew was selected to run alongside sitting MLA Sean Lynch and local councillor John Feely.
However, Sinn Fein's ruling council (Ard Comhairle) ordered a revote.
The party did not specify why, but it has been reported that concerns had been raised about procedural errors.
On Sunday, the new convention, which took place in Enniskillen, replaced Ms Gildernew with Mr Flanagan, who will now stand alongside Mr Lynch and Mr Feely.
In December, the outgoing MLA Bronwyn McGahan announced she would not be seeking re-election. However, Ms McGahan did put her name forward for the latest convention but was not successful.
Sinn Féin has come in for some criticism on social media for picking an all-male list of candidates.
There have also been rumours that Ms Gildernew, a former Stormont agriculture minister, might move to the neighbouring Mid Ulster constituency.
Last month, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness announced that he is leaving Mid Ulster in order to seek election in his home constituency of Foyle.
In response to the speculation about her moving, Ms Gildernew tweeted that "Mid Ulster has excellent candidates to replace @M_McGuinness_SF and my heart's in #FST".
She also said that she did not think she would stand as an independent and her de-selection "could be a blessing in disguise!"
During his time in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Mr Flanagan has been frequently in the news.
Last month, he was ordered to pay damages to the Ulster Unionist MP Tom Elliott over a defamatory message on Twitter.
Mr Flanagan has also been admonished by the Speaker, Mitchel McLaughlin over some of his comments in the assembly chamber and for not wearing a tie - a breach of the Stormont dress code.


An aviation society has had to cancel its open days at the former Maze prison site for the second year in a row because of a dispute between the DUP and Sinn Féin over the venue's use.

The Ulster Aviation Society had planned a two-day show for later this month.
But the use of the site needs approval from Stormont by both Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness.
A spokesperson for the ministers said: "There is no current agreement on the development of Maze Long Kesh."
The DUP said Peter Robinson had signed off on the event two months ago.
The aviation society pays to house its aircraft in the hangars on the site which currently only organised groups can visit.
Ray Burrows from the society said the open days that had been planned for 22 and 23 August would have drawn 7,000 people.
"We had a meeting with Sinn Féin representatives in June, and it was made clear to us that because the prison had been stopped there would be no development on the site whatsoever," he said.
"Even though we pointed out that this was not a development, and we had held open days in 2011, 2012, 2013, I'm afraid that fell on deaf ears.
"One side won't move because the prison is closed, and the other side deems there's no way the prison is going to be opened."
Mr Burrows said the events bring in between 30% and 40% of the society's income and without that their activities would be curbed.
A similar row broke out last year, when Mr McGuinness said no development of the former prison site outside Lisburn in County Antrim would take place until a dispute on a proposed peace centre based there was "satisfactorily resolved".
Plans for a peace and reconciliation centre were halted by Peter Robinson in August 2013, causing tension between the DUP and Sinn Féin.
Ten inmates died at the Maze prison in the 1981 republican hunger strikes.
As a result, plans to redevelop the site have been controversial.
Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney blamed the DUP for the decision not to grant permission for the open days.
He said it was a "direct result" of the party "reneging on its commitment" over the site's development.
But the DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said Sinn Féin's move was "short-sighted and petty".
"The Ulster Aviation Society is run entirely by volunteers and this event is a crucial platform to showcase their work," he said.
"I trust [Mr McGuinness] will review this decision and realise the error of his ways."


Most payments using the new Apple Pay system will be limited to £20 when it launches in the UK in July, the BBC understands.

Major UK banks, apart from Barclays, have announced they will offer the new system. So, too, will many retailers.
Apple Pay allows owners of an iPhone 6 or an Apple watch to pay by touching their devices on contactless pads.
But banks have told the BBC payments will be capped at £20, similar to existing contactless payments.
The limit on contactless debit and credit cards is due to rise to £30 in September.
While that is likely to be the limit for most Apple Pay transactions, it is thought that agreements with some retailers may allow for higher payments too.
"The majority of terminals will work to a £20 cap, whether with a debit or credit card, or a contactless device," a spokesperson for Mastercard told the BBC.
However, rival card provider Visa said many retailers would be hoping to offer higher value transactions as soon as possible.
"Not all retailers will have the limit at launch - and there will be others who will choose to get rid of it all together in time," said a Visa spokeswoman.
Higher transaction limits are partly possible because Apple Pay is thought to offer greater protection against fraud.
The system grants a one-off pay token to the retailer, instead of passing across bank account details.
Fraud on contactless cards currently accounts for 0.7p in every £100 that is spent, according to industry body, the UK Cards Association.
Apple Pay also allows customers to pay online, by using finger print technology.
Retailers including Marks and Spencer and Waitrose have announced they will offer the service when it launches.
However Tesco said it had no plans to formally adopt the system, although the technology will work in some of its stores in London which already have contactless payment facilities in place.
Asda said it would not be taking part. Its parent company Walmart has not signed up to Apple Pay in the US.
Sainsbury's also said it had no plans to offer Apple Pay.
However, any retailer with contactless technology already installed may find it has no choice but to accept payment, as Apple Pay uses the existing contactless system.
London Underground, for example, said that visitors from the United States who are registered with Apple will already be able to use their phones to pay for tube journeys.
Contactless journeys on buses and the Tube in the capital account for 17% of all such transactions in the UK.
No one from Apple was available for comment.
A rival service from phone operator Samsung is likely to launch in the UK later this year.
Read more about Apple Pay and the company's new music streaming service.


Brazilians have protested in several cities against President Dilma Rousseff after she named her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, chief of staff.

In the capital Brasilia, riot police fired pepper spray at protesters outside the presidential palace.
Lula is currently being investigated in a major corruption scandal.
Hours after the move, the federal judge leading the probe against Lula released phone recordings suggesting Ms Rousseff appointed Lula to spare him arrest.
Brazil's leader, who is herself facing impeachment proceedings, defended the appointment.
She said Lula was a "skilful political negotiator" and experienced leader who would help kick off economic recovery.
She said the ex-president could also still be prosecuted by the Supreme Court.
The release of the telephone recordings caused an uproar in Congress in Brasilia, with chaotic scenes as opposition leaders gathered around a microphone chanting "resign, resign".
There were also demonstrations in at least three other Brazilian cities.
"Theft, corruption, that's the coup... We're not clowns. Brazil is better than all of this," Reuters news agency quoted one Brasilia protester as saying.
Lula was briefly detained and questioned earlier this month over allegations of money laundering connected to Operation Car Wash, a massive investigation into corruption at the state oil giant, Petrobras.
He denies the allegations, saying they are aimed at preventing him from running for president again in 2018.
In the taped telephone conversation released by Judge Sergio Moro, who is overseeing the Petrobas probe, Ms Rousseff offered to send Lula a copy of his appointment "in case of necessity" - interpreted by some as meaning in case he needed it to avoid arrest.
Part of the phone call released by Judge Moro
Rousseff: "Hello? Lula: "Hello."
Rousseff: "Lula let me tell you something." Lula: "Tell me, dear."
Rousseff: "The following: I am sending you Bessias [one of her judicial advisers] with a paper for us to have it and only use it if necessary, it is the investiture documents, OK?"
Lula: "Uhuh. OK, OK."
Rousseff: "That's it, wait there and he is going there."
Lula: "OK, I am here, I'll be waiting."
Rousseff: "OK?" Lula: "OK."
Rousseff: "Bye." Lula: "Bye, dear."
Ms Rousseff has said she will refer Judge Moro to the Supreme Court for political interference.
Lula and other ministers appointed by Ms Rouseff are expected to be sworn in at 10:00 (13:00 GMT) on Thursday.
Under Brazilian law, cabinet members can only be tried by the Supreme Court.
As chief of staff, Lula is expected to lead the fight against moves in Congress to impeach President Rousseff over allegations she manipulated Brazil's account books to hide a growing deficit.
The impeachment push is not directly related to the corruption scandal, but has run in tandem with it.
Analysts say President Rousseff is hoping that Lula will use his political nous and influence with members of Congress to block the proceedings.
The two politicians have been close for decades - Lula was Ms Rousseff's political mentor and she is his hand-picked successor.
During his time in office, the Brazilian economy experienced unprecedented economic growth and wealth redistribution.
Profile: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva


(Close): Royal Dutch Shell led the market higher after the oil giant raised its estimate of cost savings from the BG deal.

The FTSE 100 index closed up 11.13 points at 6,284.53.
Shares in Shell rose more than 3% after it said it expected $4.5bn of savings following its merger with BG, higher than its previous estimate of $3.5bn.
In a strategy update, Shell also said it was planning $30bn of asset sales over the next two years.
Energy shares were also helped as oil prices remained near seven-month highs.
Stocks in general were helped by comments from the head of the US Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, which suggested that US interest rates were unlikely to rise this month.
In the FTSE 250, shares in Esure Group, jumped 6% at first after it announced it was considering a demerger of its price comparison website Gocompare. However, its share price then slid back to stand 0.8% higher.
Shares in Sports Direct, which have slipped from 800p-plus in the past 12 months, were up 5.4% at 383.2p. Owner Mike Ashley is gave evidence to MPs over the company's heavily-criticised employment practices.
On the currency markets, the pound rebounded after new polls suggested a recovery in support for the Remain camp ahead of the EU referendum, in contrast to polls released on Monday.
After hitting a three-week low against the dollar on Monday, the pound rose by 1.5 cents, more than 1%, to $1.4591. Against the euro, it jumped one euro cent, or 0.9%, to â‚¬1.2837.


Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy says he will take a "huge portion" of the blame for a "dreadful" display in the home defeat by strugglers Rotherham.

McCarthy's side were beaten 1-0 thanks to Leon Best's goal, their fifth defeat of the season at Portman Road.
"The performance was worse than the result, if that can be possible.
"That was as poor as we've played in a long, long time. If we play like that we've no chance of getting into the play-offs," he told BBC Radio Suffolk.
"I'll take a huge portion of the blame, I left the team as it was from Tuesday, maybe we didn't just have the legs - not making excuses we played badly."
McCarthy's side have now lost six of their last 11 league matches, while victory lifted Rotherham out of the Championship relegation zone.
He continued: "The lads always give everything, but I can't accept that performance. I suppose I have to give Rotherham some credit, having scored the goal they defended really well.
"They came with a gameplan, we conceded an awful goal from a short free-kick - there's nothing much more that could have gone wrong in our performance, and that's me included.
Following the defeat, last season's play-off semi-finalists are now four points outside the top six ahead of their next game against 12th-placed Wolves, one of McCarthy's former clubs, on 2 April.
"Each and every one of us has to up our performance," he said.


Small UK firms are split over whether to stay in the European Union or not, according to a survey of thousands of businesses.

A Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) report found that 47% of members would vote "yes" and stay in, and around 41% would vote to leave.
There were geographical differences - about 60% in Scotland would vote "yes".
But a clear majority of firms felt they did not have access to unbiased information.
A slim majority of firms - 50.5% of FSB members - said the UK's existing EU membership was good for the economy as a whole.
However, only 34.9% thought it was good for their individual businesses.
Business owner Herbert Eppel, who runs a technical translation business, was firmly in favour of the UK staying in the EU.
"Leaving would have a significant impact [on businesses]," he told the BBC. "It would lead to additional bureaucracy, time, cost, effort and hassle. Everything is working pretty smoothly at the moment."
He added that withdrawal would affect firms that directly import and export goods to the EU, and also peripheral UK businesses that rely on those firms.
But Kelly Morris of Balgonie Castle Enterprises, an events firm, said business would be easier if the UK voted to leave.
"We see the hindrance of EU regulations... the red tape and bureaucracy," she said. "Now they're talking about having to have low-powered vacuum cleaners. That's ridiculous."
She added that the UK does not seem to get "value for money" from its contribution to the EU budget.
Less than half of firms said they felt they had a full grasp about the possible effects on business and the UK economy of a Brexit, and said there was "a need for clear unbiased information" from the media.
There were fairly large geographical variations in opinion on which would be the best way to vote. Almost 60% of firms in Scotland would vote "yes", and firms in Wales and Northern Ireland were also more likely to agree that there is a benefit from EU membership than those in England.
There were also significant regional variations in England. Firms in London and the North East would be more likely to vote "yes" than firms in the East Midlands, for example.
In general, firms which relied on EU imports and exports were far more in favour of a "yes" vote, while companies which did not rely on trade were less likely to see the EU as beneficial.
The possible effect of a "Brexit" on trade has been a concern for some analysts, too.
In June ratings agency Moody's said that a withdrawal from the EU "would worsen the UK's trade position and, through that, medium-term growth."
Investment would be negatively affected, and there would be "a hollowing-out of export sector employment and capital" in the short term, it said.
But some analysts say the threat to trade is overblown.
Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist for Capital Economics, told the BBC: "There is a very good chance of a free trade agreement being formed to maintain a good flow of trade."
If the UK were outside of the EU, it could press ahead with free trade agreements with other countries without having to wait for trade negotiations at an EU level, she said.
There may be some barriers being outside of a single market, but not significant ones, she added. Trading nations outside of the EU such as the US manage to export and import, she said.
In addition, if the EU imposed trade tariffs, it "wouldn't be that bad", she said - the current tariff is 4% and falling. Exporters already face big exchange rate movements of more than that in a year.
Lucy Thomas, campaign director of Business for New Europe, a "yes" campaign group, said:
"Once again UK businesses have made clear that they support Britain remaining a member of the European Union.
"The report from the Federation of Small Businesses highlights the deep concern that many of its members have about a possible British exit."
But Robert Oxley of Business for Britain, a "no" campaign group, said: "Being part of an unreformed EU means that we lose control over key parts of our economy, costing businesses and ultimately jobs."


The video artist James Richards from Cardiff will represent Wales at the Venice Biennale 2017.

The international art event takes place in the Italian city every other year, and attracts the world's best artists, curators and agents.
James Richards is already well-known on the UK art scene, having been nominated for the Turner Prize in 2014.
He told BBC Wales it was "a real honour" to be selected to represent Wales in Venice.
Richards will work with Cardiff's Chapter arts centre to create an installation in a former convent on the banks of one of Venice's famous canals.
"It's really exciting, it's a real honour. It's always touching when people nominate you for something, particularly this.
"I grew up around the corner from Chapter so a lot of my first experiences with art were there, so it was a very exciting invitation."
Born and brought up in Cardiff, Richards now lives in Berlin where his work focuses on archive video, sound and still images.
It includes fragments of cinema, stray camcorder footage and murky late night TV shows.
Richards said exhibiting in Venice was "a really big deal".
"People who like art, for the seven months or so that it's on will flock to see it. It's a presentation of work that so many people see.
"Curators, museum directors, gallery staff and writers all attend, so it's a very important thing that happens every two years in the global art calendar."
Since 2003 Wales has been making its own submission to the Biennale. It costs around Â£400,000 to stage the Welsh exhibition, which will run from May to November next year.
Previous artists to represent Wales in Venice include Helen Sear, Bedwyr Williams and John Cale.
Richards said he will shortly make his first visit to the exhibition space in Venice.
"We are going next week to visit the building that we will use for the exhibition," he said.
"It's a multi-room venue, so I am really excited about creating a number of works that will sit together like a musical suite, in harmony, and people can move between them.
"The building itself becomes a starting point, and then I will start experimenting in the studio and gathering footage."
Richards added: "I am working with some musicians and composers on some new musical material which is a process I am really excited to start, and to find a way of including the music I am composing in collaboration with the musicians into the piece. And then I will start doing archival research and really build the show from there. "
Phil George, Arts Council Wales chairman, called Richards "an exciting and significant Welsh artist".
''His installation will bring a distinctive and remarkable talent to the attention of galleries and curators worldwide and show the contemporary edge of Welsh creativity to the thousands of visitors to the Biennale," he said.
The exact details of Richards's exhibition will remain secret until the Venice Biennale opens in May 2017.


Jack Owens scored a try in each half as Widnes Vikings survived a second-half Warrington Wolves comeback.

Owens, Rhys Hanbury and Paddy Flynn all crossed before half-time as the hosts opened up a 16-point lead.
Cameron Phelps looked to have made the game safe, but quick tries from Ryan Atkins and Chris Bridge made it 24-10.
Owens grabbed his second of the game before Stefan Ratchford went over for Wolves, but Widnes held for the bragging rights in the local derby.
Warrington remain fifth in the Super League table, while eighth-placed Widnes are three points clear of Hull KR, in ninth, who have a game in hand.
Danny Tickle converted the first try of the night from Owens, who latched onto a cut-out pass on the left flank.
Hanbury exploited a massive gap in the Warrington defence to go over and Flynn scored the home side's third try, after Stef Marsh's flick pass out of the back door created the opportunity.
The Vikings' 16-0 half-time lead was extended when Phelps finished off Flynn's weaving run.
Atkins' special solo try was followed by Bridge going over to give Warrington a glimmer of hope, but Owens collected Kevin Brown's kick for his second try.
Ratchford grabbed the visitors' third try but it was too little too late.
Widnes coach Denis Betts:
"It's been coming the last couple of weeks. We've had a few solid performances but not getting the result.
"To hold a nil lead for Warrington, such a fantastic attacking team, was a great plus in the first half. And then to withstand it and score more points was a great performance for a lot of our players.
"Everyone did their job. Our pack was massive and there's not a player who didn't give us something."
Warrington coach Tony Smith:
"Widnes took their chances well. We didn't take our opportunities, we didn't create enough.
"We were boring and didn't ask enough questions. Our opponents were good and took their chances.
"I thought Widnes out-enthused us at crucial times and I think our team will respond and fix things up.
"We accept defeat and will work harder, improve and be stronger next week."
Widnes: Hanbury, Owens, Phelps, Marsh, Flynn, Brown, Mellor, Cahill, Clarke, Gerrard, Galea, Tickle, Leuluai.
Replacements: Allen, Kavanagh, Isa, Carberry.
Warrington: Russell, Ormsby, Ratchford, Atkins, R. Evans, C. Bridge, O'Brien, Hill, Higham, England, Currie, Westwood, Wood.
Replacements: Asotasi, Riley, Dwyer, Philbin.
Referee: Phil Bentham (RFL).
Attendance: 7,158


The excesses of Christmas and New Year may still be fresh in the mind, but the new Formula 1 season is closer than you might think.

It is just 76 days until the lights go out in Melbourne's Albert Park for the start of the Australian Grand Prix and behind the scenes in factories across Europe the 22 cars from 11 teams that will contest the season are already coming together.
As the clock ticks down to the start of the shortest period of pre-season testing in F1 history - just eight on-track days in Spain starting on 22 February - we look at the five key issues that could shape the 2016 grand prix season.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has clearly spent his Christmas break pondering how to handle the rivalry between his drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, in 2016.
The tensions between the two were largely buried through last year as Hamilton cruised to the title, but they re-emerged in the final six races as Rosberg finally found his form.
This may well have been caused by Hamilton easing off having tied up the title with three races to go. But if the German can continue the performances that led to a run of six poles and three wins with which he ended the season, the fight could be much closer in 2016.
The likelihood of Mercedes remaining the team to beat has left Wolff pondering his duty to the wider sport and he has raised the possibility of letting the drivers race more freely in 2016.
"I want the dominance to continue but if it were to continue like this I need to think what we do so we do not become the enemy," Wolff told the Mail on Sunday in an interview over the Christmas period.
"Maybe it's about unleashing them completely. Give them their own strategy."
Hamilton and Rosberg have been allowed to compete on track for the last two years, but within specific guidelines operated by the team.
Key among these has been that the lead driver always gets first choice on pit-stop timing.
This is to prevent the driver behind gaining what has been deemed an unfair advantage by stopping first and using the extra grip of new tyres to take the lead.
But it reduces the possibility of the two swapping positions and restricts racing to on the track, where passing is difficult between two evenly matched cars.
Wolff's suggestion - which is only an idea for now - would undoubtedly make life more entertaining for those watching. But it would effectively force the two drivers' engineering teams to work in opposition to each other.
And it would increase the risk of one of the drivers being beaten by a rival from another team as it could risk them ending up on an unfavourable strategy.
The background to this is that Wolff has said he will consider changing his driver line-up if the disharmony between the drivers starts to affect the team. And that remark is made in the context of Rosberg's contract being up for renewal at the end of the season.
For everyone at Mercedes, there could be quite a tightrope to walk in 2016.
Ferrari were a team to a large extent re-born in 2015, the pain of a winless 2014 behind them and three excellent victories by four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel raising optimism for the future.
But can they keep it up?
Last year's progress was based on a very specific issue. The new hybrid engine had a design flaw in 2014 - its energy recovery system was under-par - and Ferrari rectified it for 2015.
But, despite being not far off engine parity with Mercedes, they remained on average 0.6 seconds a lap slower than the champions in qualifying.
In Formula 1, that's an awfully large gap to close in one winter.
The 2016 car will be the first to be produced fully by the re-shaped team under highly regarded technical director James Allison, following a Ferrari staff cull at the end of the aforementioned disastrous 2014.
Its performance relative to Mercedes will be a good indication of whether the Italian team really are on the road back to success.
And the comparison between the Ferrari chassis and that produced by Red Bull will be interesting, despite the fact their engine will likely not allow them to compete at the front.
Fernando Alonso left Ferrari for McLaren-Honda at the end of 2014 because he felt the English team would provide him a quicker route to a third drivers' title than Maranello, where he had suffered five years of disappointments.
It did not look that way in 2015, as McLaren laboured at the back of the grid largely as a result of the dire performance and reliability of the Honda engine in the Japanese company's first year back in the sport.
But, like Ferrari in 2014, there was a very specific reason for Honda's lack of performance.
As Red Bull technical chief Adrian Newey has pointed out, the internal combustion part of the Honda engine was actually pretty decent - not a Mercedes beater, but not a million miles off. The problem was the hybrid aspect, particularly energy recovery from the turbo.
Honda were well aware of this and had by last summer laid specific plans to resolve the issue.
McLaren could, then - at least in theory - make the 2.5-second a lap leap in performance that Alonso was saying was possible in the last three or four races of last year.
But what if they don't?
Honda insists the new engine will be ready for the start of the season, but what happens if it is still catastrophically off the pace?
Alonso and team-mate Jenson Button generally kept their emotions in check in 2015, their frustration only occasionally bubbling to the surface.
But, if it continues into 2016, it is hard to imagine Alonso resigning himself to it and laughing it off in the way he did with his now-famous 'deckchair moment' in qualifying in Brazil last November.
One of the sport's greatest talents is 35 this summer. He may have a contract until the end of 2017, but time is running out for him to win the extra championship his status in the sport merits, and which he craves. If Honda and McLaren don't dramatically up their game, there could be trouble in store.
Toro Rosso drivers Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz were two of the stars of 2015.
Verstappen, who turned 18 on 30 September, caught the eye with a series of brave, aggressive and brilliantly improvisational overtaking manoeuvres - and put himself on the radar of Mercedes and Ferrari - but Sainz was in his own way equally impressive.
Just as the fact that Button beat Alonso in the championship in 2015 was not reflective of the Spaniard's general superiority in races, so the 31-point gap between Verstappen and Sainz was not a fair representation of the relative performance of the Toro Rosso drivers.
Sainz, who celebrated his 21st birthday on 1 September, had the worst of the reliability at the team and actually out-qualified Verstappen 10-9 over the season.
While Verstappen grabbed all the headlines, Sainz's more measured approach also won its admirers. And there were times when the son of the eponymous rally legend made the Dutchman look ordinary - notably in the wet in Japan and the USA.
Both men appear to have bright futures, but to get to them they have to navigate a second season that always tends to be more difficult than a driver's first.
In a driver's debut year, expectations are low and everything tends to be new, shiny and wonderful.
But just as the demands of an F1 season become more mundane - and therefore more difficult to deal with - expectations and pressures rise and drivers can find themselves struggling.
It will be fascinating to see how Verstappen and Sainz deal with this - especially as they are, in a very real and immediate way, driving for their careers.
Ruthless Red Bull tends to give its drivers two seasons in Toro Rosso before deciding whether to promote them or dump them. Can they both survive?
Last season was an especially bad-tempered one off-track, with political arguments - many of them revolving around engines - poisoning the atmosphere in the paddock and between the sport's heavy-hitters.
And the new year starts with two important deadlines.
On 18 January, the engine manufacturers will deliver to the strategy group of the sport's bosses their proposals for making power-units cheaper, simpler, noisier and more freely available.
And 31 January is the date governing body the FIA set for its president Jean Todt and F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone to come up with proposals to solve pressing issues - specifically on governance, power units and cost reduction.
The two dates are inter-related. If what the engine manufacturers propose does not meet with the satisfaction of Todt and Ecclestone, they may seek to act under a "mandate" given to them by the FIA to make changes.
But Ferrari have already said the FIA has no right to grant them that power - and made threatening noises about it.
Red Bull's engine crisis is partly the cause of all this, even if it was partially self-inflicted last year. But that story will rumble on - the former champions, who are close to Ecclestone, have a stop-gap solution with a re-badged Renault in 2016 but no supply sorted for 2017.
Add in a potential European Union investigation into the governance and prize-money structures of F1, and there is a severe danger politics will overshadow the racing again.


Harry Shearer, who voices Ned Flanders and Mr Burns in The Simpsons, is to leave the show after more than 25 years following a dispute with producers.

Executive producer Al Jean said in a statement to the New York Times that Shearer had turned down a new pay deal.
The show "will go on" and the actor's characters will be recast, Jean added.
Shearer took to Twitter to say the decision "wasn't about money" and that signing up to a new series would have stopped him from doing other work.
The 71-year-old provided the voice for addled school principal Seymour Skinner as well as rapacious millionaire Montgomery Burns and Ned Flanders, Homer Simpson's chipper neighbour.
Shearer signalled his exit on Twitter by claiming that a lawyer for executive producer James L Brooks said: "Show will go on, Harry will not be part of it, wish him the best."
In a follow-up tweet, Shearer added: "This because I wanted what we've always had: The freedom to do other work. Of course, I wish him the very best."
In response, Al Jean wrote: "Harry Shearer was offered the same deal the rest of the cast accepted, and passed.
"The show will go on and we wish him well. Maggie took it hard.
"We do not plan to kill off characters like Burns and Flanders but will recast with the finest voiceover talent available."
Last week, the Fox network confirmed it had commissioned two more series of the long-running animated sitcom.
According to reports at the time, Shearer had yet to sign a new contract.
On Thursday, the actor stressed that he had no plans to retire, adding: "On to new stuff..."
His other roles have included bass player Derek Smalls in rock "mockumentary" This is Spinal Tap.
The Simpsons has been on air since 1989, and the new series will take the total number of episodes to 625.


The New York campus of Glasgow Caledonian University has been given permission to award degrees.

The degree-granting charter from New York State Education Department (NYSED) makes it the first foreign institution in the state with this status.
The campus opened in September 2013 but has not been able to award degrees.
The Glasgow Caledonian New York College has been given a provisional charter, which can become "absolute" after five years.
The Scottish university said this was standard practice for new higher education establishments.
Principal and Vice-Chancellor Prof Pamela Gillies said: "I am absolutely thrilled that we now have the opportunity to build upon our new research and business relationships in New York to deliver our unique programmes, which focus on fair fashion, fair finance and sustainability.
"Our New York team, led by Vice-President Cara Smyth, should be very proud of the steadfast way it has forged a new path for our university."
It has previously been reported that Glasgow Caledonian spent Â£5.6m on the New York project.
The campus was formally opened in April 2014 by the then first minister, Alex Salmond, and has attracted a number of high profile speakers and seminars.
When first minister Nicola Sturgeon visited in June 2015, she described the campus as an "absolutely fantastic development" and praised the "foresight" of university leaders.
The university said more than 30 "global brands" have been working with its Fair Fashion Centre "to research fashion as an instrument of sustainability and ethical business".
Cara Smyth, welcoming the NYSED decision, said: "I am delighted that we will be able to put all our plans into action and offer Masters degrees in finance, fashion and social business.
"Our Fair Fashion Center will support the degrees as we continue to identify effective approaches to profitable sustainability, proving the business case by turning global challenges into industry opportunities.
"I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to our GCU colleagues, the team here, and our many supporters in business, not-for-profits and the city of New York."
Hazel Brooke, who chairs Glasgow Caledonian's governing body, added: "We welcome the outcome. The Court has consistently focused on, tested and monitored this bold and imaginative project throughout the lengthy and rigorous process.
"Congratulations are due to the staff and advisors who have worked so hard to achieve this result."
Glasgow Caledonian has invested in a number of international projects.
It already runs a college of engineering in Oman and a college of nursing in Bangladesh in partnership with others.
It has a new campus in London as well as New York and has been invited to teach degree courses in Mauritius.


The UK's Brexit vote and the rise of anti-EU parties across Europe are signs of widespread disillusionment with the EU.

Those aged under 25 have been hit especially hard by unemployment, as the aftershocks of the 2008 financial crash and eurozone crisis continue.
A Eurobarometer opinion poll in April found that 57% of young people in the EU felt socially excluded because of the economic crisis. And in hard-hit Greece and Portugal the figures were 93% and 86%, respectively.
The EU has tried to help young people through various schemes, notably the Youth Guarantee, aimed at getting school-leavers into a "quality" first job, and Erasmus+, which offers grants to study or get work experience in another EU country.
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A German MEP, Manfred Weber, is also campaigning for all 18-year-olds to get a free InterRail pass.
The BBC asked Brussels-based correspondents from Italy, Greece, Poland and Finland to explain what the EU means for young people in their countries.
Italians like Europe in general - young people especially like programmes such as Erasmus or Leonardo - a work-exchange programme for graduates.
Young Italians like to travel a lot, they like not having to show their passport in Europe. France and Spain are popular, as our languages are similar. Not only for holidays, but they like to do summer jobs there.
But one of the biggest problems is youth unemployment. There's a feeling that no politician is doing enough to tackle it.
The EU brought in the Youth Guarantee, but in Italy the numbers are still not very good. So there is disillusionment about that. But among young Italians you can't find any who don't want to be part of Europe.
It's very difficult for the EU to communicate what it is doing for the citizens. Europe could do a lot more to get young people in touch with the EU, and become Euro-enthusiasts again.
The Eurosceptics have got stronger in Italy, and those anti-EU movements include all age groups. But it's more an internal, Italian problem - it's the politicians' fault for not explaining what the EU is doing.
Like most things in Greece these days the youth scene is extremely polarised. The majority is very anti-EU, against the European establishment. The reasons for that vary though.
Young people tend to be very disillusioned, both with the Greek state and the EU, mostly because of the EU's inability to deliver solutions, especially jobs.
Greece has one of Europe's biggest youth unemployment rates. There is a minority which is very engaged and pro-EU, they are aware of programmes like the Youth Guarantee, and they are very vocal about it. But I'd say they make up 15% at best.
Young Greeks are very engaged with social media, but broad EU campaigns via Twitter or Facebook won't reach those who don't want to be reached by the EU. Youths are clustered around certain websites or information sources, and are not easily reached by EU campaigns.
The Erasmus programme is very well known in Greece, and is sought-after by both pro- and anti-EU groups, equally. Programmes like that are seen favourably by everyone, which is a bit of a paradox.
Now young people in Poland are less engaged with the EU than they were 10 years ago.
In Poland and Central Europe, unlike in Western Europe, young people are voting more for Eurosceptic parties - more than older people. There is a real hunger for identity, after 12 years in the EU.
Young people are looking for nationalist, 19th-Century ideas about identity. It's quite strange, because they are actually the first generation that can exploit EU membership fully. They can study or work in Paris, or London - but now that's nothing new for them.
The young people who went to work in Western Europe are the most cosmopolitan, most open - and they have stayed there, so they have no impact on Polish public opinion or voting.
We haven't had real austerity in Poland, and the income gap between rich and poor is narrowing. Still, many young people feel disappointed.
People of my age are used to comparing themselves with neighbouring Ukrainians or Belarusians, and we are happy to be part of the EU. But people like my cousins in their 20s compare themselves with Germans.
EU initiatives like the Youth Guarantee don't have much impact in Poland. And young people regard the Erasmus programme as just a fact of life, they don't even identify it with the EU.
A small fraction of the youth are EU enthusiasts, such as those exposed to InterRail or the Erasmus programmes. It's usually those who would like to have a job in another country.
A survey in March showed that young Finns were the most positive about the EU, of any age group in Finland. When they were asked how they would vote in a referendum on EU membership, 71% of that age group said they would vote to stay in. But the average figure for Finns was 56%.
A populist Finnish MEP got tens of thousands of signatures in a Citizen's Initiative to get Finland out of the euro, so parliament has to consider it. But I think Finland is really a pro-euro country.
It often boils down to practical things - people like ease of travel, they don't like having to change money. Those simple improvements that the EU has brought are very popular among young people in Finland.
A lot of Finns use the Erasmus scheme. Many of the Finns working in EU institutions have an Erasmus background.
The populist Finns Party is in government and their youth wing has been calling for a "Fixit" vote - like Brexit. But I don't think that idea has any legs.


The Philippines army has said two coast guard personnel kidnapped and held hostage by Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf managed to escape during a raid.

The two men fled the jungle camp in the southern province of Sulu on Wednesday night during the two-hour gun battle.
The army had attacked the camp to free them and other hostages.
Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent group known for carrying out kidnappings for ransom, aims to establish an independent Islamic state in the south.
One of the hostages, Rod Pagaling, told the Associated Press: "When gunfire rang out as close as 15m from us, I thought it was my opportunity to survive so I ran away in the confusion."
Brig Gen Alan Arrojado told AP that Mr Pagaling and the other hostage, Gringo Villaluz, told him the militants "panicked and fled in different directions after seeing that the army had come so close and had begun the assault".
The two men sprinted through the forest and later found help at a nearby village. They only found out about each other's escape when they saw each other at a hospital on Thursday, reported AFP.
Up to 15 Abu Sayyaf militants died, while the military had no casualties.
The men were kidnapped in May in the southern city of Dapitan along with a village official, and later transported to the jungle camp.
The militants beheaded the village official last week and threatened to kill the coast guard men next, after the Philippines government rejected the group's ransom demand.
The Abu Sayyaf is holding a number of hostages in various camps in the south of the Philippines, including Malaysians and a Dutchman.
Militants freed a Swiss hostage in December.


Prime Minister David Cameron is to unveil plans for a rapid reaction force of UK medical experts to respond to future pandemics like Ebola.

He will urge fellow world leaders to "wake up" to the threat posed by such diseases at the G7 summit in Germany.
The UK will "lead the way" with a team of "disease detectives" on permanent standby to fly anywhere in the world to identify new infections, he will say.
He will also warn each fresh disease risks being harder to contain.
Last year's outbreak of Ebola in west Africa infected 27,000 people and killed 11,130 in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
The World Health Organization (WHO) was widely judged to have been ill-equipped when Ebola first hit.
At the annual G7 meeting in the Bavarian Alps, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to call for a shake-up of the organisation and the way it responds to pandemics.
Mr Cameron will also announce Â£20m of government money for a new vaccine research network to bring together pharmaceutical companies, academics and disease experts to focus on the most serious global health threats.
"The recent Ebola outbreak was a shocking reminder of the threat we all face from a disease outbreak," said Mr Cameron.
"Despite the high number of deaths and devastation to the region, we got on the right side of it this time, thanks to the tireless efforts of local and international health workers.
"But the reality is that we will face an outbreak like Ebola again and that virus could be more aggressive and more difficult to contain.
"It is time to wake up to that threat."
He said a "reservist force" would also be created including hundreds of doctors, nurses and public health experts ready for call-up if the outbreak was not contained at an early stage.
The meeting of world leaders is expected to be dominated by the Ukraine crisis, amid fears Russian President Vladimir Putin is deliberately building up further military pressure in eastern Ukraine.
Mr Cameron is expected to join forces with US President Barack Obama to press for sanctions on Russia to be extended.
Current EU sanctions are due to expire at the end of July.
Greece's debt crisis and how to tackle global warming are also likely to be on the agenda.
On Saturday, Mr Cameron called for a global crackdown on the "cancer" of corruption in the wake of Fifa bribery allegations.
Mr Cameron is expected to have a bi-lateral meeting with Mr Obama later.


Former Labour Foreign Secretary Lord Owen says leaving the EU is necessary to protect the NHS from interference and stop the spread of market forces.

The peer, who backed Britain's membership in the 1975 referendum, said he had been wrong to think the "common market" would "leave the NHS alone".
He warned a planned trade deal between the EU and US would harm the NHS.
But Labour's Rachel Reeves said EU membership had helped the NHS fund research and recruit skilled workers.
And she suggested the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) he is concerned about was being "manipulated" by Leave backers, many of whom did not support the NHS.
The NHS has become the latest battleground for arguments over whether the UK is better off inside or outside the EU ahead of the referendum on 23 June.
Earlier this week, four former Labour health secretaries said a vote to leave the EU would seriously undermine the NHS and its founding principle of care free at the point of use.
The Leave campaign retaliated with claims about the cost to the taxpayer of treating EU nationals using the NHS.
Now Lord Owen - a former GP who has campaigned against government health reforms in recent years - has said the NHS needs to be "protected" from EU interference, which he believes its threatening its heritage and independence.
In a speech in London in support of the Vote Leave campaign group, Lord Owen - who served as Labour foreign secretary in the late 1970s before defecting to the SDP and is now a crossbench peer - said the dream of European co-operation once supported by many on the centre-left of politics had turned sour.
In the past 20 years, he said the EU had "crept into every nook and cranny" of British life, including the NHS, and had to stop.
The European Commission, he said, had become "obsessed with proposing market solutions to social policy" and, in respect of health legislation emanating from Brussels, patients were being treated as consumers.
"In truth, since 2002 the Labour government, the coalition government and now the Conservative government have accepted an EU market in health," he said.
He said the application of EU competition law to the NHS would be exacerbated by the passing of TTIP, a set of free trade and regulatory agreements which he said had "no regard for the social purpose of healthcare" and would erode member states control over healthcare policy and spending.
Leaving the EU would prevent any future UK government from ratifying TTIP, he said. "We all need to respect and value, whatever political parties we support, those elements which bind the citizens of the UK together and the NHS is one of those.
"Now is the time to take back control from the EU and protect our NHS for future generations."
Several trade unions, while backing EU membership, are opposed to TTIP, saying it would allow private firms running NHS services to sue the government if it chose to return the services to the public sector - a claim rejected by the government.
Unison, the main union for NHS workers, say it is a threat to public services and should be rejected unless changes are made.
Ms Reeves, who backs continued EU membership, said she understood concerns on the left that TTIP would be a "Trojan Horse for further privatisation of the health service" but believed they were unfounded.
In an article for Labour List, the former Labour frontbencher said the issue was being exploited by those backing EU exit "many of them right-wingers with no love for the NHS".
"Let me be clear. I would not support TTIP if I believed in any way that it would allow American health providers to sue our government into breaking open the NHS, as some claim it would.
"Thankfully, anyone who studies both the detail and the political intention of this deal can see that it poses no threat at all to our health service.
"What it will do is open up the American market to British companies, creating opportunities for business that will boost jobs and growth here at home."
At a time of acute challenge for the NHS, she said the "last thing" it needed was the "shock" of EU exit.
"The EU has made the NHS stronger, providing it with research funding, skilled workers and the economic stability needed to plan future spending. Exit would put all this in peril."


Richie Ramsay wants to improve his mental toughness after being left disappointed with his display at The Open at Royal Birkdale.

The 34-year-old carded a final round of 72 to finish as the top Scot on level par for the tournament.
But he says the mental side of his game is letting him down on the big stage.
"If you don't have a sharp short game and if you are not strong mentally, that is the difference," Ramsay told BBC Scotland.
"I just play a little bit too conservative at times. The difference is you have to walk with a little bit more of a strut.
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"I have got to surround myself with as many positive people as possible. It's a negativity that falls in there. It's an old Scottish thing. There are a few other things that maybe hold us back as a nation and hold us back in general."
Ramsay was two-under after three days but was unable to make any inroads on his final round, which included an eagle at the 17th, but also four bogeys, one double bogey and just two birdies.
He finished in a tie for 22nd place, with USA player Jordan Spieth winning the event on 12 under.
"I just played poorly today," Ramsay added. "I didn't execute any of my shots. The week was summed up by the last hole. It was a very tough pin to get to and I decided to go for the middle of the green and it just run off the back edge.
"I rolled it up to six feet and didn't hit the hole with the putt. It was good but just not good enough. Probably when I go away and reflect on it I will be a bit happier with it."
David Drysdale was the only other Scot to make the cut and he carded a level-par final round to finish a shot behind Ramsay in a tie for 27th.
The 42-year-old, however, later revealed he had been close to pulling out before his round got started.
"I did something to my neck on the range this morning after hitting a couple of three woods," he said.
"I actually thought for a couple of minutes I wouldn't be going out. I couldn't really turn through the ball but I hobbled round. I had a little bit of physio on the putting green before I teed off."
Drysdale, who finished in a tie for 60th in his only other Open appearance to date, at Turnberry in 2009, is now hoping to make himself a regular at the majors.
"It was a good experience overall," he said. "Finish top 30 or somewhere like that, I'm delighted. I would have taken that at the start of the week.
"I felt really comfortable out there this week. I have really enjoyed the crowds. I should be playing in a few more of these types of events. I hope I can in the future."