Ed Miliband is not naturally a eurospectic, but he certainly sounded like one during his appearance on ITV’s Daybreak show earlier. ‘I’m very concerned about what David Cameron has done,’ he said in reference to the PM’s equivocation over Europe yesterday. ‘He’s sold us down the river.’
Whether this is Miliband committing towards the sort of euroscepticism that is being urged on him by some of his colleagues, it’s too early to say. It’s only words, after all. But my guess is that — just as when Miliband attacked Cameron for not signing up to the latest treaty, but couldn’t say whether he’d have signed it himself — this is more him trying to have his cake and eat it. Already, this morning, Team Miliband are denying that their man was ‘playing the sceptic card’.
But if Miliband did want to play the sceptic card, how might he do so? There’s opposing an increase in our IMF contributions, of course, on the grounds that the money would merely flush towards the eurozone — something that Ed Balls is already threatening. And then, just maybe, he could join Tory backbenchers in calling for a referendum on the EU (as the Lib Dems did not too long ago). Indeed, one of his MPs did just that yesterday.
Perhaps we shall find out more about Miliband’s position when Cameron speaks to the House about his adventures in Brussels, later today, at 1530.
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