Cameron fears EU referendum revolt as MPs' vote looms
Last updated at 10:00 PM on 15th October 2011
The historic House of Commons vote on whether the UK should pull out of the EU is set to take place in three weeks.
If the vote is in favour of a referendum David Cameron will come under huge pressure to offer the British public a chance to say once and for all if they want to grab back powers lost to Brussels.
William Hague has added to growing pressure on the Prime Minister to act on the issue by admitting that public opinion has changed dramatically since 1973 when Britain joined the Common Market, as the EU was then called.
Changing times: William Hague (right) has added to the pressure on David Cameron to hold a referendum on the EU by saying public opinion has shifted
The Foreign Secretary told a private meeting of Tory MPs that the mood among voters was ‘more hostile than ever’ towards Brussels.
The powerful Commons Backbench Business Committee, which meets on Tuesday, is expected to make a formal demand to the Government for a debate on a referendum.
Sources say the debate is likely to take place in the next three weeks – it will be the first major Parliamentary debate on the issue for a generation.
The result is not binding on Mr Cameron but if MPs vote for a referendum it will put him under enormous pressure to give the go-ahead for one.
Many Conservative MPs are already committed to severing Britain’s current links with Brussels.
One Tory Minister is understood to have threatened to quit if ordered to oppose the referendum move.
Key question: Labour leader Ed Miliband may see the vote as a chance to embarrass the Government
But well-placed party sources predicted that the Prime Minister will order Tory MPs to vote against the plan.
One said: ‘Cameron will move heaven and earth to stop this. The last thing he wants is a Commons vote demanding a referendum. He can ignore Tory Eurosceptics banging on about this but ignoring a Commons vote is another matter.
‘So although there’ll be plenty of our MPs who’ll vote for it come what may, I’d be astonished if the PM didn’t order Tory MPs to vote against.’
The Mail on Sunday revealed two weeks ago that the Commons was set to bow to public pressure over Europe that had included a petition signed by more than 100,000 people calling for a referendum.
Mr Cameron and Coalition Ministers have said they will not countenance an ‘in or out’ referendum despite mounting worries over the potential meltdown of the eurozone.
But at a private meeting of the Tories’ 1922 backbench MPs’ committee at Westminster last week, Mr Hague admitted that anti-Brussels feeling was rising across the nation.
One MP said: ‘Hague was very open about it. He said he had just told a visiting European minister that he was convinced the mood of the country is more hostile to the European project than at any time since 1973.’
To try to stop Mr Cameron wriggling off the hook, the MPs behind the referendum campaign, led by Eurosceptic Tory David Nuttall, want to tie his hands by including in the motion a demand to hold the referendum before the next Election.
If the referendum motion is approved, it will put huge tension on the Coalition.
Pro-EU Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg could order his Liberal Democrat MPs to vote against.
However, a growing number of Labour MPs are anti-EU and party leader Ed Miliband may see the vote as a chance to embarrass the Government.
The referendum vote move comes ahead of a major pro-referendum rally next Saturday in London, organised by the cross-party ‘People’s Pledge’ campaign.
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