London: British Prime Minister David Cameron faced the biggest rebellion of his premiership on Monday with dozens of his own party members in parliament set to back calls for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union.
The debate reignites a long-simmering row over Europe which tore apart the Conservatives in the 1990s and which Cameron had been desperate to defuse since he became party leader six years ago.
Although the vote in parliament looks set to fail and carries no legal weight, it is seen as a test of the Conservative leader’s authority and risks raising tensions within his pro-Europe Liberal Democrat coalition partners.
It comes a day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Cameron at an EU summit he was “sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do”, according to diplomats widely quoted in the British media.
Foreign Secretary William Hague, himself a Conservative “eurosceptic”, said the referendum proposal was “completely against the policy of the government”.
Some 78 members of parliament, many of them Conservatives, have put their names to a parliamentary motion calling for a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU or renegotiate the terms of its membership. Parliament debates the issue later on Monday.
Cameron has ordered Conservatives to vote against the motion but the party is dominated by eurosceptics, who believe Britain’s sovereignty has been eroded by repeated transfers of power to Brussels.
Supporters of EU membership say Britain does 40 percent of its trade with the euro zone and that leaving the EU could damage the economy and foreign investment.
With the support of his junior coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats, and the main opposition Labour Party, Cameron is virtually assured of defeating the rebels. However, a bigger than expected revolt would raise questions about his authority.
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