Nick Clegg has stepped up his assault on David Cameron’s plan to reclaim powers from Brussels, branding it a “false promise wrapped in a Union Jack”.
The Deputy Prime Minister said other EU states would never allow Britain to “pick and choose” the best bits of the grouping. He also suggested the idea was being used as a way of “unravelling” the UK’s relationship with Europe altogether.
The intervention, in a speech at the Chatham House thinktank, risks further enraging Tory backbenchers who have inflicted a stinging defeat on the coalition over the EU budget.
Chancellor George Osborne attempted to ease tensions yesterday after the Commons demanded a real-terms cut in the seven-year funding package.
He admitted frustrations among the Conservative rank-and-file were “understandable”, and reiterated that Mr Cameron would only strike a deal at a crunch EU summit next month if it was “good for the British taxpayer”. But the Liberal Democrat leader was defiant, insisting Labour and the 53 Tory rebels had to “grow up” and act in the national interest.
He said in an ideal world he would prefer a reduction in the EU budget, but the government could not wave a “magic wand”.
Mr Clegg suggested winning an agreement on an inflation-only rise from all 27 countries would be a major coup and if that happened then parliament would be asked to confront the “real, hard choices”.
Scuppering the deal in the quest for a cut would merely result in annual budget-setting, which was likely to be more expensive, and the UK would not be able to veto such an arrangement, he said.
“Then I think it will be up to, particularly, the Labour Party to decide whether they are going to grow up, stop playing these playground games in parliament and show that they are capable of making mature decisions in the national interest,” he added.
Mr Clegg also indicated he would support Mr Cameron if he wielded the veto on a deal that was not in UK interests.
“There is not a cigarette paper between myself and the Prime Minister on this issue,” he added.
Tory ministers have suggested fundamental reform of the eurozone could present an opportunity for Britain to loosen ties in social and employment law. Foreign Secretary William Hague has launched a full-scale review of how EU legislation affects the UK.
The Lib Dem leader said the idea of “opting out of the bad bits, opting in to the good bits” was “pretty seductive”.
“But, look a little closer, because a grand, unilateral repatriation of powers might sound appealing but in reality it is a false promise wrapped in a Union Jack,” he went on.
“It is wishful thinking to suggest we could effectively give ourselves a free pass to undercut the single market, only to then renegotiate our way back in to the laws that suit us.”