A FORMER Tory minister responsible for Europe has launched a savage attack on the EU - calling it "corrupt and undemocratic".

David Heathcoat-Amory, a veteran ex-Conservative and Paymaster General during John Major's spell in Number 10, has urged Worcester voters to "put an end to the EU's control over Britain" on June 23 by backing Leave.

It came during a night of frenzied debate at Worcester's Cap 'N' Gown pub last night which also saw former Worcestershire MEP Liz Lynne repeatedly challenge claims that EU accounts are dodgy.

Mr Heathcoat-Amory was an MP for 17 years, representing Wells in Somerset, and among various Tory roles including shadow chief secretary to the Treasury held the post of Europe minister from 1993-1994.

He lost his seat in 2010, a year after paying back £29,000 in allowances, including £380 in manure for his farm, a saga which led to The Times newspaper calling the scandal 'The Manure Parliament'.

He was invited to the pub last night to back the Leave camp on the EU referendum, and launched a hard-hitting attack.

"The EU is not just undemocratic, I'd go further than that - it's anti-democratic," he said.

"It denies us a self-serving Government, something every other country in the world has outside of Europe.

"What is history about? The long struggle to get parliamentary rights, to make our own laws.

"But what we've done is hand this precious right of governance to the EU - EU laws are formally superior to anything our MPs can do."

He savaged the bloc as a failed "low growth" experiment, and told the pub's crowd that Britain is getting far less from Europe than it takes out.

"How many other countries in the world have set up superior systems of joint-governance which trump their own decisions? None of them," he said.

"And you know why? Because they don't want to give up their democracy - it's normal for countries to govern themselves, but we don't."

He took a swipe at the current pro-Remain MPs, saying people are being "systematically lied to" over what powers parliament has.

He said: "We pay £13 billion into the EU budget and get back £4 billion in farming subsidies and regional aid - but we literally don't govern ourselves."

Mrs Lynne, a Lib Dem West Midlands MEP from 2009-2012, said the Leave backers are "20 to 25 years out of date" and insisted the EU accounts have been signed off for seven successive years.

She also defended the EU's democratic accountability, and insisted the UK has benefitted from its laws.

"People think it's an unelected bureaucracy, it's not - and as for legislation, the UK is on the right side of the vote 85 to 90 per cent of the time," she said.

Edward McMillan-Scott, a former Tory MEP from 1984-2014, also turned up to defend the EU, saying he "believes strongly" in the economic benefits.

LORDS' PEER SAYS EU GROWTH IS TOO SLOW

A PEER in the House of Lords also attended the Cap 'N' Gown debate to aim fire at the single currency, telling the audience it was "wrecking" southern nations.

Lord Hamilton of Epsom, an ex-armed forces minister in Margaret Thatcher's Government, said countries like Greece and Spain were not suited to the euro because their economies are so far behind Germany and Holland.

He said: "The unemployment rate in many of these EU nations is double ours, 10 per cent of the population to five per cent.

"In Greece youth unemployment is 50 per cent - the whole of southern Europe is suffering thanks to the value of the euro being too high for them, and too low for the Germans and Dutch.

"The UK has an economic model that works, they have one that doesn't and if we are to succeed in the future we need to look at the rest of the world for trade today, and not the EU."

But Liz Lynne said it was "nonsense" the EU is inflexible and insisted it was growing stronger, not weaker.

"It's nonsense to say 'you can't get rid of any EU representatives' if you think they aren't doing a good job, of course you can," she said.