By Nicholas Winning 

LONDON -- U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday dismissed the possibility of a second referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union if the results next month are close, saying the coming plebiscite is a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Mr. Cameron indicated that the result would be final. "If you vote to stay we stay and that's it -- and if we vote to leave, we leave, that's it. You can't have 'neverendums,'" the prime minister said at an event here, hosted by the World Economic Forum.

The comments come after Nigel Farage, the leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party, said a narrow win for Mr. Cameron's campaign to stay in the EU would justify another vote on the issue. A 52%-48% result in favor of remaining in the EU would be "unfinished business by a long way, " but a two-thirds to one-third victory would end it, Mr. Farage told the Mirror newspaper.

Mr. Cameron said that arguing for a second referendum even before the first has been held demonstrated that those in favor of withdrawal from the EU, or Brexit, "are losing the argument."

The differing views of Mr. Cameron and Mr. Farage underscore a question about whether the long-running EU debate in Britain -- and within the prime minister's Conservative Party -- will be settled by the referendum on June 23.

Polls generally suggest U.K. voters are divided, although the picture is mixed, with a significant number of potential voters still undecided.

The Scottish National Party lost a 2014 referendum on whether Scotland should split from the rest of the U.K. by a margin of 55% to 45%, but the party and its supporters remain determined to push for another vote.

SNP lawmakers have also argued that a vote to leave the EU should trigger a second independence referendum in Scotland because the country is predominantly pro-EU.

Some of those campaigning for Britain's exit from the EU have floated the idea there could be two referendums: one to reject the current relationship with Brussels, followed by a second after a better EU deal has been negotiated. Mr. Cameron has also rejected that idea.

Also on Tuesday, two large U.S.-based technology companies, Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., voiced their support for the pro-EU campaign, which is being spearheaded by Mr. Cameron.

"Our commitment to our staff and business here remains firm, but we also believe the U.K. remaining in the EU supports important criteria for continued and future investment by Microsoft and others," said Microsoft's U.K. chief executive, Michel Van der Bel. The company employs some 5,000 staff in the U.K.

And in a letter to U.K. employees Tuesday, Hewlett Packard Enterprise said EU membership brought a range of benefits to its business and the economy as a whole. Leaving the EU would probably have a "detrimental impact on the long-term prospects for employment, research, investment and innovation in this country," the letter said.

While many executives of large international businesses have expressed support of Britain's continued EU membership, those backing Britain's exit from the EU, or so-called Brexit, say they have the support of many of Britain's smaller and medium-size businesses.

One of Mr. Cameron's most prominent rivals, former London Mayor Boris Johnson, has seized on this theme, writing in a column Monday that the "FTSE100 fat cats" support remaining in the EU because it makes them richer at the expense of the average worker, and that voting to leave will support "the entrepreneurs, the grafters, the workers, the innovators, the burgeoning and dynamic business of Britain."

Write to Nicholas Winning at nick.winning@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 17, 2016 13:31 ET (17:31 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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