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Revolting Tories suffer referendum defeat

It was, in the words of one Tory backbencher, the night Euroscepticism “went mainstream”.

Monday night saw rebel backbenchers mount their most serious challenge yet to David Cameron’s leadership of this coalition government.  In open defiance of a three-line whip, 81 Conservative backbenchers supported a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.  The motion was defeated by 483 votes to 111 in a late-night Commons vote with both Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs opposing it.

With 15 Tory MPs abstaining, it would appear that Cameron’s writ does not run with up to half of all Conservatives outside the golden circle of ministers and their advisers.  Even more worryingly for the Prime Minister, these rebels are largely new blood, coming from the class of 2010.

Not since John Major faced down a 41-MP rebellion over the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 has a Conservative Prime Minister faced such test of his authority. While Cameron may have ridden this storm out, it’s clear that this is not the end of the matter.

The MP who tabled the motion, David Nuttall was keen to point out to ministers that they may have “won this particular battle but they certainly have not won the war". Another senior backbencher suggested that Europe would become "more rather than less of an issue" over the rest of the Parliament.

The Tories in government were keen to play down the magnitude of a revolt which Labour leader Ed Miliband characterised as a humiliation for Cameron. How, wondered the Leader of the Opposition, could the country have faith in the Prime Minister winning the arguments that matter for Britain when he couldn’t win the argument with his own backbenchers?

Education Secretary, Michael Gove told the Today Programme on Tuesday that it wasn’t a humiliation. In fact, according to Gove, the party was "united as never before" on the need to repatriate powers.

Number 10 had this to say: “We understand that many people who voted for it felt very strongly – and we respect that. However, the Government has to do what is in the national interest...The PM has made clear that he shares the yearning for fundamental reform of the EU and is determined to achieve that.”

Junior government partners the Liberal Democrats felt less need to be conciliatory. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg thought that "You don't change Europe by launching some smash-and-grab dawn raid on Brussels.”

He also resorted to some Quixotic imagery when he suggested that "we should stop tilting at windmills about threats and challenges which simply aren't there right now. Let's get on with the difficult job of working with our eurozone partners to fix the eurozone because, let's face it, unless you've got a strong, prosperous eurozone, you can't have a strong, prosperous United Kingdom."
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