Pmdithers on Britain’s place in EU
London – British Prime Minister David Cameron’s suggestion he is ready to hold a referendum on Britain’s future in the European Union backfired today after his opponents and some in his own party accused him of sending vague or conflicting messages.
Cameron appeared to rule out such a vote on Saturday – at least for now – telling voters after an EU summit that it would not be ‘‘the right thing to do‘‘, but yesterday he said the words ‘‘Europe’’ and ‘‘referendum’’ could go together.
Struggling to clarify his position today, he found himself booed by the opposition Labour Party in parliament, under pressure from Rightwing rebels in his own Conservative party and at odds with his Liberal Democrat coalition partners.
‘‘Just as I believe that it would be wrong to have an immediate in-out referendum, so it would be also be wrong to rule out any type of referendum for the future,’’ he said.
‘‘Far from ruling out a referendum for the future, as a fresh deal in Europe becomes clear, we should consider how best to get the fresh consent of the British people.’’
Labour opposition leader Ed Miliband went on the attack.
‘‘Three days, three positions, first it was no, then it was yes, then it was maybe,’’ Miliband said.
As the debt-strapped eurozone eyes greater fiscal, banking and possibly even political integration, Cameron is under growing pressure from the rebellious Right-wing of his own party to give Britons a vote on whether they wish to remain inside the EU or to downgrade their relationship with Brussels.
London’s place in the 27-nation bloc’s common market would be at stake in such a vote as – potentially – would London’s status as a regional financial hub.
Cameron has made a string of policy U-turns in recent weeks that have emboldened eurosceptics in his own party to press their demands.
‘‘Life outside the EU holds no terror . . . The people of this country are unhappy with the relationship. It’s the duty of politicians to listen,’’ prominent Conservative backbencher and former defence minister Liam Fox told an audience in London today
For many in Cameron’s CentreRight Conservative Party the EU is little more than a talking shop and a source of legal meddling that impinges on Britain’s sovereignty and holds its economy back.