Rebels lose vote on EU referendum

24 October 2011 Last updated at 17:45 ET

The debate included 52 MPs’ speeches

MPs have rejected a call for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, despite a significant rebellion against Prime Minister David Cameron.

The motion was opposed by the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour, yet 111 voted for the motion, 483 against.

Before a five-hour debate, Mr Cameron told MPs it was the wrong time for a referendum and urged them not to rebel.

Two ministerial aides, who joined the rebellion, look set to lose their jobs.

The Commons debate on the issue was prompted after a petition was signed by more than 100,000 people.

The motion called for a referendum on whether the UK should stay in the EU, leave it or renegotiate its membership.

The government was expected to win easily – and even if it had lost, the result would not be binding on ministers.

Conservative MP David Nuttall, who proposed the motion, argued there were more than 40 million people of voting age in the UK who had not been consulted on the question of Europe.

And he said the UK Parliament was becoming “ever more impotent” as the “tentacles” of the European Union “intruded into more and more areas of national life”.

Mark Pritchard, secretary of the powerful Tory 1922 committee, said the debate would be “a defining moment for many MPs who have for years called themselves Eurosceptic”.

‘Out-of-touch’

In a statement to the Commons, Mr Cameron said he shared the rebels’ “yearning for fundamental reform”, and promised “the time for reform was coming”.

He insisted he remained “firmly committed” to “bringing back more powers” from Brussels, but on demands for a referendum, he said amid an economic crisis the timing was wrong and Britain’s national interest was to be part of the EU.

“When r neighbour’s house is on fire, r first impulse should be to help them to put out the flames – not least to stop the flames reaching r own house,” he said.

Labour leader Ed Miliband, who was expected to see Eurosceptic MPs within his own party rebel, likened the Tories’ divisions of Europe to a rerun of an old movie.

He called the Tories an “out-of-touch party tearing itself apart over Europe”.

However, he did agree with the prime minister that it was the wrong time for a referendum.

“At this moment of all moments, the uncertainty that would ensue from Britain turning inwards over the next two years, to debate an in-out referendum is something our country cannot afford.

“The best answer to the concerns of the British people about the concerns of the European Union is to reform the way it works, not to leave it,” he added.

‘Heavy heart’

Tory backbenchers voiced their dismay at the three-line whip – the strongest order a party can give – on Conservative MPs, which meant any who voted against the government would be expected to resign from government jobs.

Conservative MP Stewart Jackson told the Commons he would vote for the motion “with a heavy heart” and “take the consequences”, which may mean losing his position as parliamentary private secretary to Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson.

He said he wished there could have been a well-informed reasonable debate, instead of “heavy-handed whipping” and “catastrophic management” by his party.

Fellow Tory MP Adam Holloway, a parliamentary private secretary to Europe minister David Lidington, indicated he would rebel, thereby losing his post.

He urged his fellow MPs to show people the parliamentary system could work.

To cheers in the chamber, he said: “If can’t support a particular policy then the honest course of action is of course to stand down, and I want decisions to be made more closely by the people they affect, by local communities, not upwards towards Brussels.”

“Well I’m not now prepared to go back on my words to my constituents and I’m really staggered that loyal people like me have actually been put in this position,” he said.

“If Britain’s future as an independent country is not a proper matter for a referendum, then I have absolutely no idea what is.”

Conservative Andrew Bridgen said dozens and dozens of his constituents had been urging him via email, telephone and letter to support the motion.

“The only communication I have had urging me to vote against it was a telephone call from the whips’ office,” he told the Commons.

Anger was also directed towards Foreign Secretary William Hague, who earlier tried to quell the rebellion by calling the motion “a piece of graffiti”.

Later in the Commons, he said a referendum would “add to economic uncertainty at a dangerous and difficult time” and suggested most British people did not want to “say yes or no to everything in the EU”.

Tory MPs accused him of going native and abandoning his Eurosceptic views.

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