THAT veteran, and probably only Europhile, cabinet minister of the Tory party, Ken Clarke, made a small plea during the party’s conference last week when he reminded members at a fringe meeting that they only started winning again “when they stopped talking about Europe”.
Mr Clarke’s own leadership ambitions, and maybe an earlier return to power for his party, were halted by his love for the EU and euro. But he may as well have shouted into the storm, like some latter day King Lear, for all the effect his comments have had.
Just yesterday a future leadership hopeful, the Education Secretary Michael Gove, called for an in/out referendum if significant powers cannot be returned to the UK and said the UK could be a larger version of Norway and Switzerland working with the EU.
Meanwhile Home Secretary Theresa May was on her feet yesterday opting out of a lot of policing and justice agreements with the EU. Euroscepticism is not just alive in the Tory party but running it.
And then for good measure Boris Johnson, also waded in calling on the UK government to oppose the “nonsensical” further integration of the eurozone.
The reason for all these interventions is that David Cameron’s leadership has been rocked by large backbench rebellions in the Lords and the EU itself. And the Tory MPs, who mostly hate the EU and are terrified of losing votes to UKIP, now feel they can get away with giving full voice to their views on an in/out referendum. Senior party figures are simply dancing to their tune.
The coalition agreement between a Eurosceptic party and the Europhile Lib Dems had also supposedly parked the issue as had a new law forcing a referendum on ceding more powers. But this does not appear to satisfy even moderate Tory backbenchers let alone the hardliners like John Redwood and Bill Cash.
Many of them now see Mr Cameron as being a Europhile because he is resisting having an in/out referendum and this is despite him being the only prime minister to wield a veto at an EU summit. Interestingly, he received a mini ovation at the Tory party conference when he reminded them of this fact.
What is hard to gauge is whether the European question is returning because Mr Cameron is now seen as weak, or whether it is something that no Tory leader can truly kill off. It is worth noting that Mr Gove in particular has leadership ambitions and could be in a contest with Mr Johnson.
The only party which has made an in/ out referendum promise before was the Lib Dems in their 2010 general election manifesto. The calculation at the time was that the UK electorate would reluctantly vote to stay in and at the same time kill off the Eurosceptic argument. So if Mr Cameron does have to bend to his party’s right wing it is possible that the result they get will not be to their liking.
