Britain’s membership of the European Union is a matter of principle and emotion for most Tory MPs. But it is also a matter of party management. David Cameron would have had an easier time as Prime Minister in the last parliament had he realised that while Conservatives will always want to bang on about Europe, the ferocity of and damage caused by those bangs still depends on how the leadership responds.
Cameron didn’t want to hold a referendum, and ducked and weaved away from MPs demanding one. Now he is trying to ‘gag’ pro-Brexit ministers using civil service guidance to prevent them accessing documents that have a ‘bearing’ on the EU referendum. Like so many of the Tory leader’s responses to European problems in his party, his solution sounded straightforward because it didn’t take into account the reality in his party, in the same way that teaching sounds straightforward until you take into account the presence of 30 children in the classroom.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Iain Duncan Smith hasn’t taken kindly to the civil service guidance and is reported by the Sun today to be ordering his officials to hand over EU-related documents anyway.
Given the highly personal tone of the campaign so far, this sort of defiance was inevitable. The Prime Minister needs to be careful that he doesn’t make months of rows and recriminations after the referendum inevitable as well.
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