Tory EU rebels in new attack on PM

TORY rebels will launch a fresh assault on David Cameron over Europe in the Commons this week.

In the week after the Prime Minister sent his list of four demands for EU reform to European Council president Donald Tusk – which his Eurosceptic MPs dismissed as ‘thin gruel’ and ‘trivial’ – the rebels will mount a two-pronged parliamentary attack on Mr Cameron.

The move comes as former Chancellor Nigel Lawson writes in today’s Mail on Sunday that Mr Cameron’s demands ranged from ‘wholly inadequate to completely meaningless’.

First, Basildon MP John Baron is gathering backbench signatures for a letter to the Prime Minister which will demand the ending of the supremacy of EU law over British law as a ‘red line’ in his negotiations.

In a separate move, Speaker John Bercow has granted permission for 36 Tory MPs to use Commons time tomorrow to try to overturn Mr Cameron’s decision to remove veteran euro-rebels from a plum delegation.

The motion, put down by former Cabinet Minister Owen Paterson, will call for MPs to be given the power to elect members of the UK delegation to the Council of Europe. The move is a deliberate challenge to Mr Cameron after he sacked Cheryl Gillan, Sir Edward Leigh and Christopher Chope from the body in what was seen as punishment for their disobedience.

In his article, Lord Lawson writes: ‘The bottom line is that the coming referendum will not be about whether we wish to remain in a “reformed” EU, but whether we wish to remain in an unreformed EU, with ever more powers passing from the national parliaments to Brussels, whether we like it or not. It is clearly in our national interest to leave.’