David Cameron’s speech and letter on EU reform have gone down as you might expect with Eurosceptics: they hated them. MPs and campaigners think the Prime Minister should be pushing for bigger reforms and the renegotiation is looking like a sham. Some have concluded the Prime Minister has spent the past six months traveling around Europe, asking what others find acceptable and his rhetoric today is based on what he can achieve — on red tape and competitiveness for example — instead of what is best for Britain.
One Eurosceptic Conservative MP says there is disappointment across the party:
‘The Prime Minister’s letter and speech were very disappointing and weak. A strong negotiating position is not being used. Backbench and some frontbench MPs are unimpressed.’
Another Tory MP notes the ‘vocal objections’ are from the ‘usual suspects’ but also suggests there is room to widen the scope of the renegotiations:
‘Many front and backbenchers see the letter as the starting point for negotiations and the scope will hopefully expand as discussions progress and EU nations respond. For example on tax credits for foreigners: eastern European countries currently oppose our call for a ban, but ultimately some of those countries (privately) want their citizens to stay at home and contribute there, rather than heading to UK.’
‘The Prime Minister’s case is based on economic security rather than constitutional purity — so if he protects our role in single market, restricts benefits, exempts us from ever closer union, he can make the case that the alternative is economic uncertainty, which may be enough to persuade the public.’
Bernard Jenkin, a member of the Conservatives for Britain group, says there was a nasty surprise in the speech:
‘It was exactly what we expected — though there is more of a mess around the issue of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which we thought a protocol in the Lisbon Treaty gave us an opt out.
‘For example, the Charter was used by the ECJ in a French ruling in early October to take power to the EU to regulate prisoner voting. They cannot get out of this ruling without much wider treaty change — but they don’t seem to have faced that.’
Eurosceptics outside of the Tory party are just as unhappy. Rob Oxley of the Vote Leave campaign, explains why he found the speech particularly disappointing:
‘The key message from today’s speech is that the Prime Minister’s renegotiation is going to be quite trivial – it’s purely an exercise in lowering expectation. Even those who had faith in the Prime Minister’s ability to work out a new deal must surely be asking: what actual powers are being brought home? There was nothing of substance here.’
Ukip’s Nigel Farage was also duly unimpressed:
‘[It is] clear that Mr Cameron is not aiming for any substantial renegotiation. No promise to regain the supremacy of Parliament. Nothing on ending the free movement of people. And no attempt to reduce Britain’s massive contribution to the EU budget. His speech was an attempt to portray a new ‘third way’ relationship with Brussels that is simply not on offer’
Even Labour couldn’t find it in themselves to back the Prime Minister’s position. Pat McFadden, the shadow Europe minister, says Tory infighting risks overshadowing the renegotiations:
‘The Prime Minister’s problem is there is nothing he can renegotiate that will satisfy large parts of his party. They want to take Britain out of the EU at all costs. They are desperate to be disappointed and nothing he can do will appease them…Eventually there will have to be a reckoning between Mr Cameron and his Party on this issue. He has to show leadership because Brexit by default – by failing to make the case – would be a terrible failure.’
The Prime Minister is now fighting his position on multiple fronts: against the European countries who are unhappy at some of the demands — the Czechs for example — as well the vocal protesters on his own backbenches. The statement in the Commons this afternoon following the letter saw the Europe Minister David Lidington come under attack from multiple MPs. So far, there has been a curious lack of pro-EU Tories defending Cameron’s position. If those MPs who back the PM’s strategy don’t speak up soon, there is a risk he will look entirely detached from his party.
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