
Never mind the general election: Tories are already fighting the Europe referendum
It is quite normal in British politics for a political party to turn on itself after an election defeat — but the Tories now seem to be preparing themselves for civil war in the unlikely event of victory. Already, the tribes are forming and snarling at each other. As ever, Europe is the casus belli. Ahead of the 2017 in/out EU referendum, the Tories will probably split into not two but three groups: the in crowd, the out crowd and the reform crowd. The fighting has already started. Take the struggle to lead the ‘out’ faction. It is at present being won by Owen Paterson, who in the last three
