Cameron plays down EU rift as new cracks open

The day after 79 back-benchers defied a three-line whip to vote in favour of a referendum on British membership of the European Union, Mr Cameron tried to play down the divisions in the party and the most significant assault on his authority since he became Conservative leader six years ago.

“There’s, on my part, no bad blood, no rancour, no bitterness. These are valued Conservative colleagues. I understand why people feel strongly, and we will go forward together and tackle the difficult decisions that the country faces,” the Prime Minister said.

“But you have to do the right thing and give a lead in politics, and that was what yesterday was about.”

But the Prime Minister’s spokesman was forced to play down suggestions of a rift in the coalition government after the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, and Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg appeared at odds on the issue.

Mr Gove told the BBC he would like to see more powers taken from Brussels to Westminster during “this parliament”.

He said: “We are already winning powers back – we need to win more and that process will require careful negotiation, but what we are fortunate in having is a Conservative Party that is united as never before behind that renegotiation.”

His stance contrasted with that of Mr Clegg, who said: “I think it is a monumental distraction from what is, in effect, an economic firestorm on our doorstep to tie ourselves up in knots late at night in Westminster about a treaty or inter-governmental conference that might never happen.”

He added: “Eurosceptics need to be quite careful for what they wish for, because if they succeed – and they won’t succeed, as long as I’m in government – to push this country towards the exit sign, let’s be clear: the people that will be damaged is British families, British businesses, British jobs, British communities, and I won’t let that happen.”

Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander wrote to the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, warning that “disunity… between and within the coalition parties is already undermining Britain’s credibility in ongoing European discussions”.

He demanded to know whether Mr Cameron was speaking for the government or the Conservative Party when he raised the prospect of a renegotiation of the UK’s EU membership.

Mr Alexander later said: “Last night demonstrated that we have got a deeply-divided Conservative Party. But the comments that have emerged this morning from the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, seem to confirm that we have a deeply-divided government.

“Within a couple of hours of Michael Gove taking to the airwaves this morning promising the repatriation of powers, we have now got the Deputy Prime Minister – his Cabinet colleague – flatly contradicting him and saying there will be no repatriation of powers as part of the coalition government’s programme.

“The public deserves better than a government turning inwards and fighting with each other instead of fighting for British jobs, British investment and British growth.

“This spectacle of an out-of-touch and divided government is undermining the influence Britain has at the European negotiating table, which is bad news for millions of British people who desperately want to see a proper plan for growth and jobs.”

Mr Cameron’s official spokesman acknowledged that when the Prime Minister or Mr Gove talked about repatriating powers from Brussels, they were expressing the position of the Conservative Party, and not the government. But there was division within the Conservative Party.

One of the rebels, Tory MP Andrea Leadsom, said: “I genuinely believe that our front bench on the Conservative side are eurosceptic – they would genuinely like to repatriate powers.”