PRO-EU billionaire George Soros has said the campaign to have a second EU referendum will start properly “in the next few days”.

As Italians are reconciling themselves to the prospect of another general election, described as a referendum on the country’s membership of the euro, Mr Soros said the EU was now facing an existential crisis.

“Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. To escape the crisis, the EU needs to reinvent itself,” he declared in a speech to the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank he helped found.

Branding Brexit “territorial disintegration”, the Hungarian-born investor said: “Most of the damage is felt right now when the European Union is in an existential crisis but its attention is diverted to negotiating a separation agreement with Britain. That’s a lose-lose proposition but it could be converted into a win-win situation.

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“Divorce will be a long process, probably taking more than five years. Five years is an eternity in politics, especially in revolutionary times like the present.”

The Herald:

The 87-year-old tycoon is now a US citizen and became known as the “man who broke the Bank of England” after he bet against the pound in 1992, forcing the UK out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

He said it would be better if Britons came to a final decision on EU membership “sooner rather than later; that’s the goal of an initiative called ‘Best for Britain’, which I support. Best for Britain fought for, and helped to win, a meaningful parliamentary vote which includes the option of not leaving at all,” he explained.

Mr Soros, who has donated more than £700,000 to the pro-EU campaign, made clear that staying in the EU would be good for Britain but it “would also render Europe a great service by rescinding Brexit and not creating a hard-to-fill hole in the European budget”.

He stressed: “But the British public must express its support by a convincing margin in order to be taken seriously by Europe.

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That’s what the Best for Britain is aiming for by engaging the electorate. It will publish its manifesto in the next few days.”

The billionaire insisted the economic case for remaining a member of the EU was strong but it would take time for this to sink in. “During that time the EU needs to transform itself into an association that countries like Britain would want to join, in order to strengthen the political case,” he added.

Tory backbencher Andrea Jenkyns, speaking for the pro-Brexit Change Britain campaign, said: “George Soros wants to overturn the largest democratic mandate in British electoral history but in the same breath admits the EU is in an ‘existential crisis’ and needs to change to convince the UK to rejoin.”

A second poll, she argued, would not only damage the UK’s negotiating position but also send a dangerous signal that Westminster was seeking to ignore the votes of 17.4 million people.

“The British people have already made clear their wish to take back control from Brussels and now want to see their decision implemented,” she added.

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In another development, Downing Street hit back at “negative anonymous briefing” from Brussels as Brexit negotiations continued to be mired in stalemate. One senior EU official accused the UK of “chasing a fantasy” .

Michel Barnier, the bloc’s chief negotiator, compared the process to a game of hide-and-seek.