The rebellion wasn’t just against Europe — it was also against Cameron’s style of leadership

In the hours leading up to Monday’s vote in the Commons on the EU referendum motion, frantic negotiations took place between No. 10 and Nick Clegg’s office. Downing Street wanted the Liberal Democrat leader to stay away from both David Cameron’s statement on the European Council and William Hague’s speech in the debate. It feared that the presence of the deputy Prime Minister would inflame the tinder-dry Tory benches. One Tory remarked that this was a moment when the party would appreciate some space.

Eventually they reached a compromise. The pro-European Clegg would be on the front bench for the statement. But he had to accept Cameron saying that he wanted to ‘refashion our membership of the EU’.

This rather absurd horse-trading is typical of what Cameron has to do when the European issue crops up. He has to try to pull off a coalition and party balancing act. He is leader of an increasingly Eurosceptic party but he is governing with the most Europhile party in British politics. Initially, Cameron tried to deal with this problem by putting it in the deep freeze. But the crisis in the eurozone has put paid to that.

The events of the past few days have tipped the balance in favour of a more explicitly Eurosceptic position. For all its rage at the rebels, No. 10 knows that a situation which leads to almost half of Tory backbenchers voting against a three-line whip needs to be addressed. Cameron and other senior Tories will now begin to articulate more robustly Eurosceptic positions in the coming weeks. But these words must be followed by action or Cameron will soon face even more trouble from his own side.

At a meeting of the Tory hierarchy on Monday to discuss how to contain the rebellion, William Hague surprised several of those present by announcing that the Foreign Office had done detailed preparatory work about repatriating powers from Brussels.