The Tory spinners were in an exceptionally good mood after PMQs today. The general feeling was that Ed Miliband had messed up, and this wasn’t helped by his aides having to clarify that when he told the Prime Minister that ‘my position is no – we don’t want an In/Out referendum’, he actually meant that currently they don’t want an In/Out referendum now.
‘The position has not changed,’ said one party source. ‘We do not think that an In/Out referendum is a good idea. We will not do anything which damages the UK economy.’
But they added that they were not ruling one out forever. And they were not ruling out a referendum commitment in the manifesto, either. So this is another ‘for now’ position, rather than a commitment of any sort.
All this confusion was exactly what the Conservative party had hoped for from Cameron’s speech.
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