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DAVID Cameron has retracted a threat to all cabinet ministers that they would have to quit if they wanted to campaign for Britain leaving the EU.
The move yesterday morning, described by one senior Tory backbencher as “the fastest U-turn of all time”, is likely to be seen as the prime minister caving in to Conservative Eurosceptics.
Cameron expects to secure a new deal for Britain in a reformed EU and to fight for the UK to remain a member, throwing the government’s full weight behind the campaign. The referendum will take place in either 2016 or 2017.
On Sunday, more than 50 Tory MPs formed a group, Conservatives for Britain, warning Cameron that they would fight for a Brexit unless he could “end the supremacy of EU law over more matters of British life”.
Cameron appeared to have adopted a tough stance at the weekend, warning — while at the G7 summit in Bavaria — that any ministers who wanted to campaign for a Brexit must quit their government jobs.
The prime minister said that unlike Harold Wilson, who allowed Labour ministers to campaign on both sides of a Common Market referendum in 1975, he expected “everyone in government” to fight on the same side.
“I’ve been very clear that if you want to be part of the government, you have to take the view that we are engaged in an exercise of renegotiation, have a referendum and that will lead to a successful outcome,” he said.
Yesterday morning, however, his spokeswoman said that Cameron’s comments at the event had been “over-interpreted”.
She said that Cameron’s comments about ministers having to resign if they did not support the government’s position only applied to the renegotiation process. The prime minister had not taken a decision yet what rules would apply during the referendum period, she added.
David Davis, a senior Eurosceptic Tory MP, said Cameron needed to make up his mind about how colleagues could vote in the referendum itself.
“I want the clarification made more clear . . . vital that ordinary members of government can vote the way they want,” he said.
The clarification came many hours after the story first ran on the front pages of most of Britain’s newspapers.
The spokeswoman was unable to explain why any minister would resign before the renegotiation process was complete.
Meanwhile, Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, dismissed demands by some Tory MPs in the new group for the Westminster parliament to have a unilateral veto over any EU law.
“That’s not achievable, that’s not negotiable, because that would effectively be the end of the EU,” he told the BBC. He said a group of national parliaments working together should be able to show a “red card” to the bloc.
However, the Tory MP Steve Baker, head of Conservatives for Britain, said it was a “modest demand that parliament should have sovereignty over its own territory”. If that were not granted, Britain would “have to leave”.
Cameron will have his first clash with the group this month when MPs debate amendments to the EU referendum bill, which paves the way for a British in-out vote by the end of 2017.
Tory Eurosceptics could rebel against Cameron for the first time since his May 7 election victory, over a provision that would allow the use of public money in the run-up to the vote to make the case for British EU membership.
The MPs want to see the normal 28-day purdah of official neutrality before a sensitive vote. But Hammond said the government had no intention of remaining “neutral” in the referendum campaign.
The Treasury is expected to publish a series of “analysis” papers looking at the economics of Britain’s EU membership, which Eurosceptics believe could see the official civil service being deployed in favour of the “in” campaign. — ft.com.
Online Reporter