Cameron warned by own British bulldogs over ‘Merkozy’ plan

Prime Minister David Cameron was last night under siege from his own party to hold a referendum on Europe and use the crisis in the eurozone to repatriate powers back to the UK.

Ahead of a crucial summit in Brussels, Downing Street was resisting demands for a referendum on any treaty changes, but two Cabinet ministers and London mayor Boris Johnson supported calls for one.

As European leaders gathered in Brussels to discuss the German-French plan to save the eurozone – involving much greater fiscal and political integration of the 17 countries involved – it was clear some Tories would not tolerate anything less than powers being repatriated to Westminster.

Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson joined Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith in calling for a referendum if there is a treaty change, and it is understood both men and at least five other ministers met Mr Cameron to express their concerns. Mr Paterson said a referendum would be “inevitable” because of the law brought in by the coalition preventing any transfer of powers to the European Union without one.

This came after Mr Cameron was besieged at Prime Minister’s Questions over how he intended to deal with the euro crisis, with nine back-bench Tories demanding he “seizes the moment” to win powers back.

Father of the House Sir Peter Tapsell warned greater eurozone integration would “pose a great threat to the whole of the liberty of Europe”. Another Tory MP, Andrew Rosindell, urged the Prime Minister to show “bulldog spirit” in the talks between the 27 EU leaders.

John Baron said Mr Cameron should use the summit to demand “a fundamental renegotiation of our relationship with the EU based on free trade and competitiveness and not political union and dead-weight regulation”.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson said: “If Britain was asked to sign up to such a thing within the 27, it would be right for us to veto it. If we felt unable to veto it, then certainly it should be put to a referendum.”

But Mr Cameron refused to say what powers he would want to repatriate or to accept the need for a referendum.

The issue last night was whether the “Merkozy plan” – named after German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy – would mean changes to EU institutions affecting all 27 states. If it did, it would mean a renegotiation of the whole European treaty and not just the eurozone.

In a letter yesterday, the two leaders called for a “renewed contract between the euro area member states”, including monthly meetings of eurozone leaders until the current crisis is over.

Sensing Mr Cameron’s weakness, Labour leader Ed Miliband said the Prime Minister was reaping the consequences of promises to back-benchers at the time of October’s Conservative rebellion over Europe that he would use future treaties as an opportunity to demand the repatriation of powers from Brussels.

Meanwhile, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s says it is putting the European Union on review for a possible downgrade of its triple-A credit rating.

Yesterday’s move follows up on a similar action taken on Monday in regard to 15 of the 17 members of the euro because of the eurozone’s debt crisis.