EU referendum vote: Gove plays down Tory rebellion

Education secretary says government and backbenchers united in determination to wrest back powers from Brussels Michael Gove sought to play down the differences between the government and backbenchers after David Cameron suffered the largest postwar rebellion on Europe when 81 Conservative MPs supported a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. The education secretary insisted the policy differences between the government and rebels were exaggerated, and said the two sides were united in their determination to wrest back powers from Brussels. Nearly half Cameron’s backbenchers defied a three-line whip and voted in favour of a motion calling for a referendum on whether Britain should remain in the EU on the current terms, leave or renegotiate its membership. As a new opinion poll showed overwhelming support for a referendum , normally loyal backbenchers warned Downing Street that the prime minister would face further rebellions unless he takes a tough stance in EU treaty negotiations. A total of 79 Conservative MPs voted in favour of an EU referendum, while a further two were tellers for the rebels, bringing the total to 81. A further 15 abstained, meaning Cameron had failed to convince more than half his backbenchers to support the government. Downing Street attempted to reach out to the rebels, saying that it respected those who voted in favour of the referendum. Some Tories said Cameron had sanctioned an aggressive operation to persuade wavering MPs to support the government, but Gove told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that attempts to persuade MPs to vote with the government had been cordial. He said those who decided to rebel were not disaffected Tories, but MPs who felt moved to vote “out of principle”. “Certainly there was a significant number of people who chose to take a different view [to the government], but I think that, while the numbers are significant, the difference in policy … isn’t that significant and it can be exaggerated. You have on the Conservative backbenches, and in the cabinet, colleagues and friends who want to change our relationship with the European Union. “The prime minister, not because it was wrung out of him but because he speaks from the heart, wants to refashion our relationship with the European Union. “There were a number of our colleagues who felt the motion last night provided a means to do so. I didn’t agree with them, but I respect the passion with which they put their case.” Gove admitted that MPs from the same party being divided in a vote was “less than perfect”, but said Britain’s relationship with the EU was an issue of the “deepest and most profound principle”. He said that if the government was ever in a position in which it was about to hand more powers from parliament to Brussels, a referendum would automatically be triggered. But he stressed that he was interested in the powers the government could take back from Brussels, saying the coalition agreement drawn up with the Liberal Democrats had a commitment to the “balance of competencies” between Britain and the EU. “I think we should take powers back over employment law. I think we should take powers back that affect our capacity to grow. There are some specific regulations which govern whom we can hire, how we can hire and how long they work, which actually hold us back,” he added. EU laws on employment safeguard a range of rights for workers, including a four-week annual holiday, maternity rights, parental leave and the working time directive. Asked when the government intended to claw back powers, he said: “I’d like to see that change in this parliament. “Things are changing rapidly, and the government needs to be ready to change, it needs to be ready to argue for its position.” Addressing the eurozone crisis, Gove said the government needed to ensure the problems “don’t touch us” and ensure money being spent to support eurozone countries does not come from the British taxpayer. Speaking in the Commons on Monday, Cameron said forthcoming treaty negotiations would give Britain an opportunity to further its national interest. But Mark Pritchard, one of the rebels and the secretary of the backbench 1922 committee, said that Europe as an issue would “not go away” despite the motion on a referendum being defeated in the Commons vote. Pritchard called for a “clear definition of what the coalition policy on Europe is”, telling Today: “I think that we need to have some beef on the policy – we need to have clarity. “Is it the case now, for example, that a fiscal union will not trigger a referendum under the European Union Act 2011, despite the fact that it will be a significant and fundamental change in our relationship with the European Union and with the eurozone?” David Nuttall, the Conservative MP for Bury North, who tabled the motion for a referendum vote, said Europe needed to realise that many people in the UK believe it has become too closely tied to the EU. He told Sky News: “I’m interested in trying to get a national referendum because I think that’s what the British people want. It would be one way of strengthening the prime minister’s arm in his negotiations with our European partners if he was able to go and say: ‘I have consulted the British people.’” David Davis, who faced Cameron in the final round of the 2005 Tory leadership contest, made it clear that the prime minister would have to give ground on Europe when he defended his decision to vote in favour of a referendum. The former shadow home secretary said: “We have been told this is the wrong time. This is the time when all the claims of Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are to centralise the EU even more to create a fiscal union. “It will have an impact on Britain, as the prime minister has said. So this is absolutely the time to think about this. We should be protecting ourselves from the consequences of the eurozone.” EU referendum Michael Gove Conservatives Liberal-Conservative coalition David Cameron House of Commons Foreign policy European Union Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 25, 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.