Labour MPs to join Tory rebels in push for EU vote

Labour MPs are set to join rebel Tories in pushing for an EU referendum before the next election, in a sign that the fragile political truce over Europe is starting to fracture....



Tom Watson, a former Labour minister, said he would support an amendment put forward by the Tory MP Adam Afriyie calling for a referendum next October.

The cross-party move will reawaken Conservative passions over Europe ahead of a Commons vote next month on a Tory private members’ bill paving the way for a referendum before the end of 2017.

But Mr Watson’s support for Mr Afriyie’s move to accelerate the plebiscite to October 2014 also spells trouble for Ed Miliband, who has so far refused to commit himself to a referendum.

Mr Watson, an influential MP with strong union links, said there were “a lot of people on both sides of the House who think we need clarity on this now”.

Some senior Labour figures believe Mr Miliband should support an early referendum as a means of ending the debate while simultaneously igniting a civil war on the Tory benches.

With parliament returning yesterday after the party conference season, David Cameron was quick to try to close down a potentially damaging new round of party infighting over Europe.

“We will not allow this amendment to be passed under any circumstances,” Downing Street said.

“The PM will not let it stand.”

Mr Cameron hopes that the Afriyie amendment will sink without trace. Tory officials pointed out that Tory eurosceptic MPs, including Zac Goldsmith and Sarah Wollaston, were quick to denounce the move.

Mr Goldsmith and Ms Wollaston fear the amendment could disrupt the passage of the EU referendum bill being promoted by the Conservative MP James Wharton.

The prime minister hoped that by giving his personal support to the Wharton bill and to a referendum by the end of 2017 he would satisfy his party, but Mr Afriyie claimed that voters might not believe that the promise would be kept.

The Tory MP for Windsor, who has assembled a clandestine network of Tory MPs to support a future leadership campaign, insisted he was “completely loyal” to Mr Cameron but was putting down the amendment as a matter of “conscience”.

“I couldn’t sit here quietly and not give every MP the option to search their soul and decide if they really want to have this referendum, in which case it would be better to have it in 2014,” Mr Afriyie told Sky’s Murnaghan programme.

Mr Afriyie’s insistence that he has “no ambition whatsoever to lead the Conservative party” was met with disbelief by Mr Cameron’s allies, who see the Windsor MP as “a fantasist” who has over-reached himself.

For Mr Miliband, the Afriyie amendment will reopen debate in his own party about whether Labour should support an EU referendum in 2014 or perhaps the autumn of 2015, immediately after the election, to end uncertainty on the issue.

Mr Miliband’s current position is that Labour would only hold a referendum if there were a new EU treaty that transferred power from London to Brussels. No such text is on the table.

Meanwhile, Douglas Alexander, shadow foreign secretary, fears that by raising the prospect of a UK in-out referendum now, Labour would be handing a propaganda victory to the Scottish National party ahead of next September’s independence referendum in Scotland.

The SNP is firmly in favour of Scotland’s EU membership.

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader, will say this week that an EU referendum is inevitable but, like Mr Miliband, he believes it should be held “when a serious change to Europe’s rules, affecting the UK, next arises”.

Mr Clegg has badged the Lib Dems as “the party of in” when the referendum comes and has decided to make a virtue of this fact ahead of next year’s European elections.