Cameron to limit money spent on EU campaign

DAVID CAMERON will today promise Tory backbenchers he will not embark on a taxpayer-funded spending spree over the EU referendum as part of a last-minute attempt to head off a rebellion.

The Conservative leadership will reassure Eurosceptic MPs that the Government will limit the amount of public money spent trying to keep Britain in the EU in the final weeks of the In-Out referendum, due before the end of 2017.

Tory MPs had been infuriated by Downing Street’s attempt to scrap “purdah” rules, allowing Mr Cameron to use the full might of the Whitehall machine to campaign to keep the UK inside the EU.

Downing Street’s stance forced Eurosceptic Tories to table an amendment blocking the move in a rebellion that looked set to be backed by as many as 50 MPs.

However the prospect of an embarrassing clash with his Commons backbench has prompted Mr Cameron to reach out to the rebels and assure them that their concerns will be addressed.

Sources said that Tory Whips spent yesterday phoning potential rebels urging them not to defy Mr Cameron and warned them that “now is not the time for division”.

They urged would-be rebels not to have “another Maastricht moment” – the row over Europe that crippled John Major’s premiership in the Nineties – just six weeks after an election victory.

But one senior Eurosceptic Tory MP warned that Mr Cameron may already have irreparably damaged his relationship with backbenchers over the purdah issue.

“What on Earth are they doing provoking everyone like this so soon after the election? Nobody wants a fight,” the MP told The Daily Telegraph.