Will Sir John Major be asked to lead Britain’s Europe renegotiations? The Telegraph diary raises this prospect – and it makes sense. As a former PM with clout and credibility he would be well-suited to the job, and has made the case for such an external negotiator in the past.
His recent speeches about Britain’s relationship with Europe have struck some as an audition for this job. When Sir John was on Andrew Marr’s sofa last month, he was asked about this directly:
Major: I think there are some practical things that could be done that don’t infringe the principle but do meet the problem, but I think frankly they’re much more likely to be done if they’re not aired in public but discussed in private.
Marr: Do you think we need some kind of super ambassador figure to carry out those negotiations alongside the prime minister?
Major: Well I think in time there will be someone. I mean there’s going to be more …
Marr: Might that someone be you?
Major: I think not. No, no, I think it’ll have to be someone who is in the government and who is close to the prime minister in the government. But a great deal of the most important negotiations on these occasions, on this as in previous treaties, will inevitably be done by the prime minister himself. I think that is undoubtedly so because it’s done at the very top of government. But I think beyond that, there are 28 nation states. We have to form alliances with many of them on many issues. I mean subsidiarity, for example – the argument that things should only be done at the European level if they can’t be done at the national level.
For what it’s worth, my understanding is that the Prime Minister agrees with Sir John. If David Cameron is still in his job after May, the EU membership renegotiation will be the single most important (and perhaps last) act of his premiership. Cameron has the highest respect for Sir John, but thinks that this task will have to be done by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary.
Now, Cameron may change his mind after the election — after all, as Thatcher found, renegotiating with Europe can take up a hell of a lot of time. But when the idea of a chief negotiator was floated, in the spring of this year, I understand that Cameron decided that he would be lead negotiator because this was a job that cannot be sub-contracted.
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