Cameron critics point to deep difficulties

Published on Thursday 5 November 2009 17:58

ADHERING, again, to the principles laid out in his well-thumbed copy of the New Labour handbook of spin and crisis management, David Cameron hoped that by making a capital "D" decisive statement on the Lisbon Treaty on Wednesday he would put an end to the ructions in his party. Mr Cameron was wrong.

Yesterday, the Tory leader faced criticism from within and outwith his party, with a second Tory MEP quitting a senior post in protest at his "confused" policy, an accusation from France's Europe minister, Pierre Lellouche, that the Conservatives demonstrated a "bizarre autism" over the EU, and Lord Mandelson stirring things up mischievously from the sidelines.

Attacks from Labour, delighted to be on the front foot for once, are to be expected but it is the internal difficulties within the Tory party and the perception of Mr Cameron, a putative prime minister after all, in mainland Europe that are most significant.

Mr Cameron made a rod for his own back when he made a "cast iron" promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. That broken promise must now inform our view of his new policy of asking voters before any more British sovereignty passes to the EU.

But the attack by Mr Lellouche suggests that even right-of-centre politicians in Europe do not take the Tory party seriously, a matter of great concern as a harbinger to their approach to a future Cameron government.