William Hague warns Tory MPs over EU referendum vote

The foreign secretary has said that supporting the motion in Monday’s debate risks damaging the UK’s economic recovery A referendum on Britain’s future in the European Union could damage the UK’s economic recovery and undermine attempts to tackle the eurozone crisis, the foreign secretary, William Hague, has warned Conservative MPs. The intervention, by one of the cabinet’s most prominent eurosceptics, comes as David Cameron faces potentially the most serious rebellion of his premiership next week. Hague warned fellow eurosceptic Conservative MPs against voting for a referendum in a backbench debate taking place on Monday at a time of “profound economic uncertainty”. His comments echoed a warning by the chancellor, George Osborne, that the eurozone crisis posed a “real danger” to all European economies, including Britain’s. Arriving for talks in Brussels ahead of a summit of all 27 EU leaders on Sunday, Osborne said it was “in Britain’s national interest” that the crisis is resolved. At least 61 Conservative MPs have signed a motion calling for a referendum on whether the UK should remain in the EU, leave or renegotiate its membership, and some predict the total number of rebels could top 85. Hague said the Conservatives remain committed to repatriating powers from Brussels, but added that a referendum was not the means to achieve this. In an article for the Daily Telegraph on Saturday, he writes: “As a Conservative, I want to bring powers back from Europe, as we set out in our election manifesto. But a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, especially at this time of profound economic uncertainty, is not the answer. “Nothing would do more to help our economic recovery than a resolution of the eurozone’s difficulties, while its disorderly break-up would have a very serious impact on our economy.” He received support from Tory former cabinet minister, Peter Lilley – regarded as a hardline eurosceptic – who also cautioned against a referendum. “If we are in the business of getting back powers from Europe … then we have to go about negotiating that return of powers and you cannot do that through a referendum,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. “The opportunity will present itself when Europe comes to us and the eurozone countries want to change the treaty to shore up the euro with further integrationist measures,” he said. “We will say then: ‘Well you need our support because you need the unanimous support of all the countries to change the treaty. So even though that doesn’t affect us we will only give you our support if in return you return some powers to us.’” Mark Pritchard, secretary of the powerful Tory backbench 1922 committee, called on Cameron to impose only a non-binding single-line whip in Monday’s vote, which would allow MPs to back the motion without facing disciplinary action. But Downing Street has made clear that Cameron expects all Conservative MPs to oppose not only the referendum motion – triggered by a petition of more than 100,000 public signatures – but also two amendments tabled in the hope of finding compromise. William Hague David Cameron Conservatives Foreign policy European Union David Batty guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 22, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.