What Cameron and Labour want to get out of the Juncker row

Labour has supported David Cameron’s attempt to block Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, but that hasn’t stopped it getting a little pre-emptive attack in today as the Prime Minister prepares for failure at the European Council. Douglas Alexander argued this morning that ‘there was an alliance that was to be built, but alas it appears that the Prime Minister so badly misjudged his tactics and his strategy that that’s not going to be the outcome in the next 24 hours’. At Business Statement in the Commons today, Angela Eagle joked:

‘Two weeks ago, the Prime Minister sent the England football team a recorded good luck message, and jet over a week later, the team crashed out of the World cup. With the European Council upon us and the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker looking increasingly inevitable, may I suggest one last desperate tactic that the Prime Minister could use to stop him? Forget about the Luxembourg compromise; the Prime Minister should send him a good luck message.’

The purpose of both these comments – one serious and one witty – is to show that the Prime Minister is a poor negotiator and that it’s not the recalcitrance of European leaders that’s led to Juncker looking like the inevitable victor, but the poor skills of the Prime Minister.