Tories dismiss EU policy backlash as two MEPs quit

The Tories said they would not be put off by “abuse” thrown at their new European policy today after two MEPs quit the frontbench and a French minister delivered a stinging rebuke.

Eurosceptics Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer resigned as party spokesmen over David Cameron’s decision to drop a promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Mr Cameron announced yesterday the ratification of the Treaty had made a public vote impossible and pledged instead to try to wrest back powers from Brussels.

In a bid to quell party anger at the move, he also vowed to change the law so no further powers could be lost to the EU without a UK referendum.

And he proposed a United Kingdom Sovereignty Bill to make explicit that ultimate authority remains with the Westminster Parliament.

But employment spokesman Mr Helmer criticised the “confused” position and joined Mr Hannan among those arguing for a public vote of some kind on the EU even if not on the Treaty itself.

“What we have is an essentially cosmetic policy. We are installing a largely ineffective burglar alarm when the family silver has already been stolen,” he wrote on the ConservativeHome website.

“But the British people don’t want vague promises. They want the family silver back in good order. I can neither justify nor support our new EU policy.”

Mr Cameron is having to negotiate a policy tightrope as he tries to prevent a re-explosion of party divisions over Europe while not offending European leaders with whom, most polls suggest, he will next year be dealing with as British Prime Minister.

He has said efforts to take back powers would be done “respectfully” over a Parliament and not as an anti-Brussels crusade.

The general feeling in Europe was one of relief that the referendum promise had been dropped but French foreign minister Pierre Lellouche laid into the “pathetic” stance.

“It’s pathetic. It’s just very sad to see Britain, so important in Europe, just cutting itself out from the rest and disappearing from the radar map,” he told The Guardian.

“Nobody is going to play with the institutions again. It’s going to be take it or leave it, and they should be honest and say that,” he said, saying the decision to pull out of the mainstream centre-right group in the European Parliament had “castrated your UK influence”.

Mr Lellouche later said while he was “saddened” at the party’s apparent hostility to the EU, he counted shadow foreign secretary William Hague as a friend with whom he could work.

He told the BBC he had not intended to use the words “pathetic” or “castrated” and had not thought his comments were for publication.