New Tory turmoil over Europe

LONDON – British Prime Minister David Cameron is bracing for a fresh Conservative rebellion over Europe this week as about 100 of his party’s lawmakers look set to defy him in a parliamentary vote.

Tory divisions over Britain’s membership of the European Union have burst out into the open ahead of Wednesday’s expected vote.

Eurosceptic MP John Baron has tabled a non-binding motion expressing “regret” that last week’s Queen’s Speech did not include a promise to legislate for a referendum on EU membership.

Cameron has promised to hold a referendum if his party wins a majority at the next general election in 2015.

Media reports suggest 100 lawmakers are likely to support Baron’s motion, a third of the parliamentary Tory party. But it emerged this weekend that ministers have been told they cannot support Baron’s amendment and should abstain.

Amid front- page newspaper headlines proclaiming “Tory civil war”, senior Conservative ministers took to the airwaves yesterday to try to calm the storm.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said the “overwhelming majority” of Tory MPs wanted a different relationship with Brussels, and said he believed leaving the EU would be “perfectly tolerable”. But he insisted Cameron’s promise to renegotiate Britain’s terms before putting them to a vote in 2017 was the right approach.

Home Secretary Theresa May and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond also backed the prime minister’s plans in TV interviews and confirmed they would abstain in next week’s vote. –