End of EU is unstoppable
DAVID CAMERON faces “unstoppable” demands this week to “seize back control of Britain’s destiny” follow- ing his defiant stance against Brussels.
The Prime Minister, set for a hero’s welcome from Tory MPs at Westminster tomorrow, will be confronted on Tuesday with a motion calling for an EU referendum, tabled by DUP leader Nigel Dodds who last night said Britain stood on the cusp of a new and powerful position in Europe.
He said: “We’ve got an Opposition Day on Tuesday, so it was the ideal time to call for the referen- dum and draw up the motion.
“The UK still suffers terribly from the way things have evolved within the European Union and it is high time we grabbed back control and regained power over our destiny.”
The debate will be seized on by eurosceptics desperate to keep momentum going following Mr Cameron’s decision to walk away in the face of French implacability,and refusing to sign up to a treaty change demanded by a Franco- German alliance that would im- pose fiscal union on profligate eurozone states.
There will be an initial three weeks of them spitting tacks at us and then they will come to realise we are actually very important, as the largest net contributor to the EU budget, and we will be back around the negotiation table
The Prime Minister’s move leaves Britain standing alone against all the 26 other European member states which have indi- cated they will agree to the “Merkozy” deal.
Mr Cameron decided to use his veto after French President Nicolas Sarkozy refused to meet our modest demands to safeguard Britain's interests.
Chancellor George Osborne yes- terday praised the Prime Minister for battling to protect the UK financial sector, which accounts for 11 per cent of our gross domestic product and employs hundreds of thousands of people, from a flood of new European regulations.
He maintained: "If we had signed this treaty, if David Cameron had broken his word to parliament and the public - gone there and caved in without getting the safeguards he was looking for - then we would have found the full force of the European treaties, the European Court, the European Commission – all these institutions enforcing those treaties – using that opportunity to undermine Britain’s interests, undermine the single market.
“We were not prepared to let that happen.”
However, while Mr Cameron is being feted by his own party, his defiance risks further fracture along the faultline now running through the heart of the Coalition.
The Premier will be increasingly torn between Conservative MPs determined to take Britain to the European exit door and Lib Dem MPs desperate to stay at the heart of the project.
Mark Pritchard, secretary of the backbench 1922 Committee said the Premier now faced an "unstoppable" demand to cut Britain free from Europe.
He said: "Undoubtedly the new inner German-Franco dominated EU-bloc will seek to advantage themselves to the disadvantage of Britain.
It will be this action that will lead to a growing public demand for a referendum – public momentum that will become unstoppable”.
John Baron, Foreign Affairs Select Committee member, said Britain had the chance to “re-set its relationship with Brussels” and save the country billions of pounds it currently is forced to hand over to eurocrats.
He said that over the next three years the UK could claw back £22billion which could be ploughed into the economy to fund tax cuts or finance frontline public services.
The huge sum is enough to pay 100,000 police officers or nurses, build 80 new hospitals or cut income tax by a penny for every worker. It could finance a six pence cut in corporation tax to aid struggling British business.
Eurosceptics were in jubilant mood on Friday night as Mr Cam- eron hosted a dinner for 30 back-benchers at Chequers.
While the Prime Minister would not divulge details of his difficult negotiations with bullish Mr Sarkozy, he told MPs at the long- planned event attended by a cross- section of the party, that he would continue to stand up for Britain’s interests.
Romford MP Andrew Rosindell, who was among the guests, said last night: “David Cameron has united his party.
“He stood up for British interests and showed the true bulldog spirit. He has proved he is willing to say no to Europe.”
However, if Mr Cameron has united the Conservatives he has strained the Coalition almost to breaking point.
Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott accused eurosceptics of being “Coalition agreement wreckers” who risked millions of British jobs with reckless demands for a power grab.
A senior aide to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said he “fully understood” anger within his own party but had urged MPs and peers to keep a calm head in the days and weeks ahead.
Yesterday it seemed that mes- sage had failed to reach Sharon Bowles, Lib Dem leader of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, who tweeted: “The City will suffer. Maybe serves them right.”
Deputy Lib Dem leader Simon Hughes echoed Mr Clegg’s calls for calm, suggesting that Britain may well find its way back to the negotiating table before the “new deal for Europe” was signed in March. He said Britain’s stance now made a referendum less, not more, likely.
Chris Heaton-Harris, co-founder of the Fresh Start group of Conservative reformers which meets tomorrow to map out its- battle strategy, said: “David Cameron has been very clear on this. He drew a line in the sand and said we are not going over this.
“There will be an initial three weeks of them spitting tacks at us and then they will come to realise we are actually very important, as the largest net contributor to the EU budget, and we will be back around the negotiation table.
“I think we are heading for a referendum on European issues, I don’t see how we can avoid it in
time and I don’t want to avoid it.”
Joint founder of the group George Eustice, who was formerly the Prime Minister’s spokes- man, said that regardless of Britain’s domestic debate, the reality was that the eurozone was facing its “endgame and possible meltdown”.
He added: “They can all sit at their table with their little name badges but they cannot take the necessary decisions.
“The eurozone will not survive in its current form and that then becomes a different ball game for Britain. They are all wringing their hands at Britain’s isolation now but in a few weeks’ time that is going to look like a very smart move indeed.”
However, Tim Montgomerie, editor of the Conservative Home website, warned that Mr Cameron had to damp down expectations of a referendum.
He explained: “The danger for Cameron now is expectations running out of control. This is a coalition, he cannot just do what he wants.”