William Hague snubs Tory right over EU membership referendum demands

Foreign secretary says ‘our place is in the European Union’ and describes coalition government as ‘wonderfully refreshing’ William Hague has cast off his reputation as the darling of the Tory right by describing governing with the Liberal Democrats as “wonderfully refreshing”. He also rules out a referendum on UK membership of the EU. The comments by the foreign secretary, in an interview with the Observer , will dismay the many Conservative MPs who resent the Lib Dems’ moderating influence on government policy, particularly on relations with Europe, and want their party to champion a more rightwing agenda. As the Tories gather for their annual conference in Manchester, amid calls from rightwingers for David Cameron to give less ground to their coalition partners, Hague says this administration is working better than the last Tory government in which he served. “When you sit with David Cameron and Nick Clegg and other senior colleagues examining an issue, it is a wonderfully refreshing, rational discussion, actually, in which you know your party identity is not the first consideration,” he says. “The government has a more united spirit than the last government I served in at the end of 18 years of Conservative

Posted by on October 1, 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.