Eurosceptics may have only a few days before their ministerial colleagues can join them in campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union. But they’re currently very unhappy at the sort of briefing they’ve been hearing about what might happen to those ministers after the referendum.
The official line is that the Prime Minister will not sack anyone because of the position they take on Europe. But noises off suggest that this isn’t quite true: James reported in his Sun column last week that the Prime Minister has taken to telling colleagues ‘I’ve said I would have Outers in my Cabinet after the referendum. But I haven’t said they’ll be the same ones.’ And this has annoyed MPs, who think it undermines the idea of a free vote, and will lead to the serious schism in the party that Cameron claims to be trying to avoid.
Steve Baker, head of Conservatives for Britain, the group in the party campaigning to leave the EU, tells Coffee House:
‘Ministerial freedom on the European question should mean just that: the Prime Minister urged all colleagues to do what they thought right, so if ministers are now sacked for the position they take, that risks a serious fissure in our party.’
Cameron has managed to upset the party’s grassroots by telling MPs not to base their decisions on what their constituency associations tell them. This suggestion that eurosceptic ministers might still get sacked has upset the MPs too. Of course, if Cameron did sack any of the most overt eurosceptics, such as Chris Grayling or Iain Duncan Smith, from his Cabinet, then he would find life extremely difficult indeed, even if he’d planned to move them for reasons other than their position in the referendum.
Comments