Conservative backbenchers angry at aloof prime minister who is hamstrung on EU by coalition partners
Share 1
inShare5
Email 
David Cameron is blamed by Tory MPs for heavy-handed tactics on EU referendum vote. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA
David Cameron was probably thankful that the weekly cabinet meeting, which was cancelled because he was due to be in Japan, did not take place this morning. This meant the prime minister went off to inspect Warrior tanks and did not have to watch Liberal Democrat ministers smirking in the cabinet room.
The Lib Dems are relishing the pain of their coalition partners after 81 Tories rebelled against the prime minister on Monday night in the Commons vote on an EU referendum. Nick Clegg deepened those wounds this morning when he dismissed Tory hopes of repatriating powers from Brussels as "tilting at windmills". One beaming senior Lib Dem said:
For once it is great to see the Tories suffering. Now they know what it is like.
The pain of the vote runs much deeper than the political embarrassment of a prime minister failing to persuade more than half his backbenchers to support him on an issue that brought down one Tory prime minister and hobbled another. Senior figures, who made clear to me overnight that Cameron should prepare for four years of trench warfare on Europe, say the rebellion has highlighted two major weaknesses in the prime minister.
MPs are complaining that, in their eyes, the prime minister is heavy-handed but ultimately weak in his handling of his party over Europe:
• Heavy-handed
There were gripes in the lobbies on Monday night about the way in which the prime minister and senior ministers warned waverers that they would jeopardise their careers if they voted against the government. All prime ministers and whips resort to such tactics. But there is a difference this time. A growing number of Tory MPs feel that the prime minister and his circle are out of touch with them. One MP is reported to have sworn at George Osborne when he asked her to support the government 10 minutes before the vote. Tom Bradby touched on Cameron's strained relations with his MPs.
The lack of a rapport between the Cameron circle and Tory backbenchers means many MPs have no fear of the prime minister. This is exacerbated by the prime minister's diminished powers of patronage in a coalition and the growing feeling that their boss does not live in Downing Street. Many MPs believe their boss is the chairman of their constituency association. They are having to be particularly careful to burnish their Eurosceptic credentials because in many cases MPs have no idea even of the name of their association thanks to the redrawing of seats by the Boundary Commission.
Heavy-handedness is just about bearable in a prime minister who delivers results. But there is trouble if a prime minister cannot do that. This highlights Cameron's second problem:
• Weakness
The intervention by Clegg showed that Cameron will not be able to deliver the repatriation of social and employment laws. The prime minister admitted in his statement to MPs on Monday that he had been unable to deliver this Tory election manifesto pledge because it was not included in the coalition agreement. But he appeared to give the impression that he might place this on the table in the negotiations that are likely to take place to revise the Lisbon treaty to formalise new rules on greater fiscal integration in the eurozone.
Opportunities to advance our national interest are clearly becoming apparent.
Michael Gove, the education secretary, went further on the Today programme when he indicated that moves were being made to repatriate these powers now. Asked by John Humphrys when Britain would start bringing back powers from Brussels, Gove replied:
We are working now. The government is working now.
But this is not coalition policy. The coalition agreement simply states in this area:
We will examine the balance of the EU's existing competences.
A unit in the foreign office has been established to carry out this work. But the Foreign Office says that it will not lead to the repatriation of powers in this parliament for the simple reason that there is no majority in the Commons for a change.
One government source explained what is likely to happen:
At the insistence of the Germans, who have to pay the most, there will be negotiations for a limited revision of the Lisbon treaty. This will be designed to put the growth and stability pact [which is meant to enforce fiscal discipline] on a proper footing. In those negotiations Britain will try to protect its position in the single market and to protect the City.
These negotiations will probably come tumbling down, possibly if Ireland is asked to approve the treaty change in a referendum. At that stage, which could be years away, there will probably be a major and wide ranging revision of the Lisbon treaty. It is at that stage that Britain might have an opportunity to repatriate social and employment laws.
The prime minister cannot be as straightforward as my source because such frankness would enrage his MPs. Perhaps he could reach out to his MPs by stating in stronger language his belief that he has already repatriated one power. Britain will no longer be part of any EU bailout of a eurozone country when the bailout mechanism is placed on a permanent footing in 2013.