Tories are approaching the referendum in the wrong way

David Cameron’s rather pointed digs at Boris Johnson in the Commons yesterday surprised his own MPs, who had thought that they were going to be ordered to be pleasant to one another, not attack senior colleagues who had taken different stances on the European Union.

At the party meeting with the Prime Minister last night, MPs including Steve Baker asked Cameron to ‘be nice to Boris’, not because they are particularly worried about the Mayor’s spirit being crushed but because there is some dismay in the party that the referendum debate is already getting so personal. One Outer who likes Cameron observes sadly that ‘he was silly letting his temper show but it was sadly typical. He finds being challenged irksome’. Cameron probably also feels that the Mayor was a bit of a tease right up to the last minute, whereupon he humiliated him.

The problem that the Conservative party needs to confront is that it will naturally spend the next few months arguing about who is right about the risks and benefits of Brexit, and what Cameron’s deal really means.