Buoyant Cameron gearing for tough reforms
LONDON: Buoyed by a surprisingly clear-cut election victory, British Prime Minister David Cameron was due to name his new cabinet today and meet Conservative lawmakers keen to hear how he plans to claw back more powers from the EU.
Cameron won an outright majority in last week’s parliamentary election with 12 seats more than all the other parties combined, freeing him to ditch his previous Liberal Democrat coalition partners and govern alone.
He has promised to renegotiate the country’s relationship with the EU and then call a referendum by 2017 on whether to stay or leave, a decision with far-reaching implications for trade, investment and Britain’s place in the world.
But he faces a strong contingent within his own party who loathe what they see as the dead hand of Brussels bureaucracy and will take plenty of convincing to accept anything other than a British exit.
The last Conservative prime minister to govern with a small majority – albeit larger than Cameron’s – was John Major, whose premiership two decades ago was fatally undermined by “eurosceptics” within his own party.
So four days after winning re-election, Cameron can expect a rousing reception from the so-called 1922 Committee of Conservative members of par- liament, but will know from Major’s example that the honeymoon may not last.
“A Conservative party that yearns for less meddling EU government will be urging the prime minister on to the full restoration of home rule,” leading eurosceptic John Redwood wrote in the Observer.
Also on the agenda will be Cameron’s blueprint for eliminating Britain’s budget deficit. Having halved it to around 5 percent of gross domestic product since 2010, he has promised another £30 billion (R553b) of “consolidation” in the next two years including £12b from the welfare budget.
Cameron could reappoint former party leader Iain Duncan Smith as work and pensions secretary in charge of welfare reforms, which opponents call draconian but which the government says are necessary to make working more attractive than receiving state handouts. – Reuters