Philip Hammond becomes 2nd Cabinet minister to say he would vote to leave EU today

If the Tory leadership had hoped that a few weeks of reconciliation between David Cameron and his backbenchers would lead to a new, serene phase in party management, they couldn’t be more wrong. Things seem to be getting worse on Europe: today two Cabinet ministers have felt emboldened by the Queen’s Speech vote this week to say that on the current terms of Britain’s membership of the EU, they would leave.

James covered Michael Gove’s comments this morning, and this evening Defence Secretary Philip Hammond joined in, telling John Pienaar that Britain needed a better settlement in order to stay in the EU. This is a transcript of the exchange on Pienaar’s Politics:

John Pienaar: As things stand, we’re not going to have a referendum, but as things stand you would say ‘out of here?’

Philip Hammond: Yes because I believe that we have to negotiate a better solution that works better for Britain if we are going to stay in and play a part in the European Union in the future, but let me be absolutely clear I think it is defeatist to sort of say we want to leave the European Union.

We should say no, this is a club that we are members of, and before we talk about leaving it, first of all we’re going to try and change the rules and change the way it works and change the objectives that it has in order to make it something that works for Britain. And I think there’s at least a reasonable chance that we can achieve that because of the coincidence of our needs and the needs of other important member s of the Eurozone Germany in particular, for reform, and of course the Germans are very, very influential in the overall European debate.

That the Outers in the Cabinet are now coming out isn’t a bad thing for David Cameron in many ways as it gives more force to his demands when he does start negotiating a new relationship in earnest. But the problem is that he’s watching the debate rage, then playing catch-up with the rest of his party, which is now even more keen to talk about Europe than it was before the big speech that was supposed to end all the worries on this front. The question that many Tory backbenchers want to hear Cameron answer is whether he’d do the same on the current terms? He has already made clear that his instinct is for Britain to remain in Europe, but he hasn’t articulated whether he would vote in or out if the referendum took place tomorrow.

Meanwhile there are now 53 signatures on tomorrow’s Order Paper supporting the Baron/Bone amendment, of which three are Labour – John Cryer, Kate Hoey and Kelvin Hopkins – and the rest are Tory.

Mr John Baron

Mr Peter Bone

Mr Philip Hollobone

Philip Davies

Kelvin Hopkins

John Cryer

Mr Douglas Carswell

Mr Edward Leigh

Mr John Redwood

Mr David Davis