A majority of Dutch MPs have voted in favour of a motion to remove the phrase ‘ever closer union’ from the preamble to various EU treaties.

The motion was put forward by the fundamentalist Christian SGP and was backed by the two pro-Nexit parties PVV and Forum, three of the four coalition parties, the Socialists, pro-animal PvdD and 50Plus during a debate on Europe at the end of last week.

The motion requests that the Dutch government now work toward having the text removed from EU treaties at the first opportunity, arguing that its inclusion is used as a legal argument for further EU integration.

Prime minister Mark Rutte, whose own party VVD backed the motion, said during the debate that reopening treaties would ‘bring enormous risks, when we have bigger fish to fry within Europe’.

‘The cabinet is not going to call for reopening treaties and making that single point,’ he said. ‘That would be nuts.’

Research published earlier this month showed the Dutch are among the least likely of all European nationals to support their country withdrawing from the EU.

The Eurobarometer report shows that 86% of the Dutch would vote in favour of remaining in the EU if there was a referendum tomorrow and just 8% would vote for a Nexit.