Cameron Wins Vote On European Referendum
Prime Minister David Cameron has comfortably seen off calls by backbench MPs for a referendum on the UK's future in Europe, but the debate in the House of Commons has laid bare a deep and lingering resentment by many in his own party.
The motion calling for a national vote on Europe was rejected by 483 to 111, but 79 Tory MPs defied the will of the government in a blow to the prime minister's authority. A further four acted as tellers or abstained, in the party's biggest ever revolt on the issue.
Two junior members of the government, Adam Holloway and Stewart Jackson, voted in support of the referendum and have either resigned or been sacked.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, Michael Gove said the defeat was "not a humiliation" - but deputy prime minister Nick Clegg risked further inflaming coalition tensions over Europe, saying a repatriation of powers from Europe was "not going to happen".
"You don’t change Europe by launching some smash-and-grab dawn raid on Brussels", he told journalists.
However Cameron defended taking on the rebels within his party, saying on Tuesday morning: “in politics you have to confront the big issues rather than try and sweep them under the carpet”.
During a six-hour debate in the Commons, dozens of Tories stood up to complain bitterly that the government's approach on an EU referendum was out of touch with the majority of the British people. Ministers were accused of undermining democracy by refusing to allow MPs a free vote on what had been a backbench motion. But some of the most scathing criticism from Tories was saved for the Liberal Democrats, who were accused of U-turning on their manifesto pledge to hold an EU referendum. Like Labour and the Tories, the Lib Dems had whipped their MPs into opposing the referendum motion.
Earlier David Cameron had set out why he believed there was no justification for a referendum, telling MPs that proposing one while the crisis within the Eurozone was ongoing would ultimately damage the sluggish British economy.
"When your neighbour's house is on fire, your first impulse should be to help put out the flames," he told MPs, saying that it was in Britain's national interest to remain in the EU because it was the destination for most of Britain's exports.
But a senior backbench Tory and chairman of the 1922 committee, Mark Pritchard, argued that most people in Britain have never had a say on Europe, and the last referendum on it - in the 1970s - was only on the European Common Market and not the much more integrated union which exists today.
Pritchard told MPs that millions of people in Britain had become a lost generation of alienated voters who needed to be re-enfranchised, and argued that allowing a referendum on Europe would help re-engage people in the UK's future.
Two polls published on Monday revealed that, when asked, most people said they wanted a referendum on EU membership.
A ComRes/ITV poll said that more than two thirds of the public (68 per cent) supported the idea of a referendum. Just 16 per cent said they did not, and 16 per cent did not know. The poll found that fewer than a quarter (23 per cent) thought that membership of the EU had delivered more benefits than disadvantages.
The poll did however show that only a third (37 per cent) of people wanted a full withdrawal from the EU, while the same number did not want to leave.
A separate poll by The Guardian and ICM showed that 49 per cent of people would vote to withdraw from the EU, while 70 per cent wanted a referendum. The poll also showed that a majority of Tory voters wanted to leave the EU, while a majority of Labour and Lib Dem voters wanted to stay in.
Stewart Jackson fully expected to be sacked as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Northern Ireland office, but in his speech he made a stinging attack on the foreign secretary, William Hague.
"The Foreign Secretary once described the EU as a 'burning building with no exits'," he said, "But now the foreign secretary is putting mortice locks on the windows and the doors.
"It will not do any longer. The people's voice will be heard."
Tory MP Anne Main was one of several to attack her Lib Dem coalition colleagues, accusing them of kicking their pledge to hold a referendum on the EU because it had become politically difficult.
Eurosceptic Tory MP Bernard Jenkin warned that MPs were about to vote in a way that flew in the face of the wishes of those who'd elected them. ""What is sad for this House, on an occasion when we could be reflecting the genuine concern of our voters...we are going to vote perhaps 4-to-1 against what our constituents would prefer to see," he said.
There were rebels on the Labour benches as well, many with a heavy heart but angry over Ed Miliband's decision to whip his own backbenchers into defeating the motion. Stephen McCabe told the Commons: "I will find myself in the division lobby with some strange bedfellows, some people I think are frankly mad."
Labour leader Ed Miliband said it was a "humiliation" for the prime minister: ”If he can't win the argument with his own backbenchers, how can the country have confidence that he can win the arguments that matter for Britain?"
| @ igeldard : Sir George Young (Leader of the House) and Labour whips agree there were 81 Tory rebels #No2EU |
A Downing Street spokesman said:
"The House of Commons has clearly voted against this motion.
"We understand that many people who voted for it felt very strongly - and we respect that. However, the Government has to do what is in the national interest. The easy thing to do would have been for us to have avoided expressing a view. It was important to take a strong lead - because Britain's best interests are served by being in the EU.
"The PM has made clear that he shares the yearning for fundamental reform of the EU and is determined to achieve that."
Still many more than expected. A source close to the whips' office tells HuffPostUK that they had expected 65 rebels just an hour before the vote.
He is walking through the division lobby with the Prime Minister. Both looking relaxed.
Peter Bone says he is going to put country and constituents first before party, claiming this was advice given to him long ago by David Cameron. So Bone is taking the PM at his word.
He says "If the three front benches agree on something then it is absolutely wrong."
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell is here in a bowtie and dinner jacket
He tells the Commons that he will defy his party's whip and vote for the referendum motion. But admits "I will find myself in the division lobby with some strange bedfellows, some people I think are frankly mad."
Britain's only green MP will be supporting the move for a referendum
She says:
- The common agricultural policy and fisheries policy have been environmental disasters
- I want us to remain in the EU. If we put the case to the public we can convince them we should stay.
Stewart Jackson says Hague once described the EU as a "burning building with no exits'" but now the foreign secretary is putting mortice locks on the windows and the doors.
He says the whipping has been heavy handed, and says politicians cannot "infantilise" the public.
"It will not do any longer. The people's voice will be heard."
He will support the motion and will expect to be sacked as a PPS in the Northern Ireland office
He says:
- I am not a usual suspect.
- I regret the rhetoric William Hague used about graffiti in Parliament this morning.
- This motion should have been about starting a reasonable debate.
Jacob Rees-Mogg says the Conservative Party hierarchy has been forced to oppose the motion because of the Liberal Democrats.
"It can only be the Lib Dems who are inveigling us down the path of unrighteousness," he says.
You an listen to Sean Dilly's interview with Stewart Jackson, who is about to lose his government job, below:
Gisela Stuart, the eurosceptic Labour MP, tells the Commons that politicians should trust the people.
"We have, for better for worse, decided we have become a more participatory democracy," she says.
"I don't think we should take for granted what the poeple would say...if politicians dont trust the people why on Earth should the people trust the politicians?"
Senior Conservative backbencher Bernard Jenkin says it is a "sad" day that MPs are about to vote against their constituents wishes.
"We know what public opinion feels about this issue, we know public opinion overwhelmingly shows a strong sentiment for a fundemantal change in our relationship with the EU," he says.
"What is sad for this House, on an occasion when we could be reflecting the genuine concern of our voters...we are going to vote perhaps 4-to-1 against what our constituents would prefer to see."
Labour's Frank Field says the EU has been an "exercise in deciet from the word go".
He tells MPs that it has had a "cancerous effect" on British democracy and warns of a "growth in cynicism among the electorate that we as parliamentarians are never going to deal seriously with the issue".
TalkSport's lobby correspondent Sean Dilly has just published this interview with Tory MP Stewart Jackson.
He explains why he is willing to give up his role as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the secretary of state for Northern Ireland in order to vote in favour of a referendum.
"I expect to be fired by the cheif whip later today for supporting the motion," he says.
| @ seandilley : Audioboo: Stewart Jackson PPS MP: 'Cameron has failed voters' http://t.co/xAPtP1x8 #cameron #commons #eu #europe #pps #rebel #referendum |
Hollobone is a member of the backbench committee that chose the referendum as the subject to be debated by the Commons this evening.
"I believe if we were to have a referendum on 'in or out' most of my constituents in Kettering have had enough and would vote to leave," he says.
Attacking the "attitude" of the government, he gestures at the front bench. "Shame on you," he says.
Tory Philip Hollobone tells MPs that the referendum debate is not a "right wing cause" and has support from all sides of the political spectrum.
"The problem is its [The EU] tentacles creep into all aspects of the British way of life," he says
"People from right, left and middle think it outrageous in this present Parliament our membership fee will be £41bn."
- If we don't support the Eurozone now then it will adversely affect the City of London
- But there will have to be a commitment of repatriation of powers further down the line.
We expect this PPS to be voting with the whip, but let's see....
Ian Davidson, Labour MP for Glasgow SW says he is supporting the motion. We think he's just suggested he's fed up with taxpayers money going to Sicilian gangsters...
| @ jimmurphymp : Former For. Sec. Malcolm Rifkind speaking in Commons and being loudly heckled by his own side. A sign of how much Tory Party has changed. |
| @ eyespymp : Gov Whip Shailesh Vara talking in an Indian language to a member of HoC security staff in Central Lobby - not doing any whipping then |
Repeating the claim that the Lib Dems only stand for what's convenient at election time. She's not allowing any Libs to intervene.
Her main point : I am sick of referendums being touted around when it's election time and then kicked into the long grass when it's too difficult.
HuffPost Uk suspects he's off for a quiet chat with the whips.
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The Huffington Post UK Chris Wimpress First Posted: 24/10/2011 13:57 Updated: 24/12/2011 09:12