Strong warning for Cameron as 130 MPs hit out over EU
Peter Bone, one of the MPs behind last night’s vote, said he believed about 115 of his Tory colleagues supported the amendment expressing regret at a lack of a Bill in the Queen’s Speech and none had opposed it.
Despite the support, the amendment was defeated by 277 votes to 130, majority 147.
Mr Bone told the BBC: “It shows that the Conservative Party wants an EU referendum. No Conservative voted against the amendment, many Labour MPs voted for it.”
He added: “This is not a rebellion, this is a free vote. In fact, to a certain extent, the Prime Minister was encouraging us to vote for the amendment because, after all, it’s his own policy.”
David Cameron insisted nothing could be read into the result because he had allowed backbenchers a free vote but Labour claims he has “completely lost control” of his party on the issue.
Mr Cameron said: “I don’t think people can read in anything really to the scale of that free vote.
“Not least because only the Conservative Party has a very clear position and a very clear policy about what needs to happen in Europe.”
Mr Cameron promised an in/out referendum by the end of 2017 earlier this year but eurosceptics want the commitment written into law and the leadership yesterday published a draft Bill that would enable that to happen. It would have to be taken up by a Tory backbencher to get the plan considered in Parliament, but opposition from Labour and the Lib Dems would prevent it making progress.
Tory backbenchers were given a free vote on the referendum amendment to the Queen’s Speech motion — which is non-binding — although Conservative ministers were instructed to abstain.
Mr Cameron denied he had been panicked into publishing the draft Bill to try to quell the Tory unrest and was “profoundly relaxed” about the situation.
