EU vote not humiliation – Gove

25 October 2011 Last updated at 03:49 ET

Mr Cameron urged his MPs to oppose the motion

Michael Gove has told the BBC the vote on the EU referendum was “not a humiliation” for the Conservatives.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said more than half of Tory backbenchers are believed to have defied the whips by backing the motion or abstaining.

The education secretary said that the government and MPs were “united” behind a goal to get back powers from Europe.

He denied there were “convulsions” in the party and said disagreements had been conducted with “cordiality”.

The backbench motion was defeated by 483 votes to 111, after all Tory, Lib Dem and Labour MPs had been instructed to oppose it.

In total 81 Tories are known to have defied the whips, including the two Conservative tellers, the people who count votes in the Commons.

Nick Robinson said a further 15 Conservative MPs had abstained from the vote – meaning that David Cameron had failed to convince more than half of his backbenchers to oppose the idea of a referendum on UK membership of the EU.

But Mr Gove told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme while there were a “significant number” of rebels – the differences between them and the Conservative frontbench could be “exaggerated”.

“It was a very precisely worded motion which allowed a number of people like myself, who are passionate Eurosceptics, to say: Look, I disagree with the tactics but we agree on the ultimate goal.

“If have a disagreement about tactics … and if have that disagreement conducted with cordiality and good manners on all sides then I don’t think it leads to the sorts of convulsions that many people want it to.”

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