Tory rebels stay defiant over call for referendum

Rebels said backbenchers would go against the government in today’s crunch Commons vote on staging a referendum on Britain’s future in the EU.

It came as Prime Minister David Cameron last night pledged to “exact a price” through changes to the EU treaty if European leaders sought closer integration to help deal with the eurozone crisis.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed the government would be imposing a three-line whip requiring Tory MPs to vote against the motion or face the prospect of disciplinary action.

He said: “The motion is contrary to government policy. Governments impose a three-line whip to protect their policy when a motion is laid in the Commons which contradicts it.”

The move has angered many Tory MPs, who argued they should be given a free vote on what was a non-binding, backbench motion in a debate triggered as a result of a public petition on No 10’s website.

Eurosceptic John Redwood said: “I think the public will want to think that their view was taken seriously, that there was a good debate and there is a solid body of support in the House of Commons that is allowed to express its view.”

Mark Pritchard, the secretary of the backbench Tory 1922 Committee, said: “The government should step aside on the three-line whip and just allow members to represent the views of their constituents.”

Mr Cameron was, however, supported by the former Tory leader and prominent Eurosceptic Lord Howard, who said a referendum now would be a “mistake”.

“It would be an enormous distraction from the urgent task of focusing all the efforts of government on meeting the economic challenge, on growing economic recovery and creating jobs, if the political class were to be diverted at this moment in time to arguing about whether we should have a referendum on our future in the European Union,” he said.

With both Labour and the Liberal Democrats whipping their MPs to vote against the motion, the government is guaranteed a comfortable majority. But the vote threatens to reopen deep wounds within the Conservative Party over Britain’s position in the EU.

So far 60 Tory MPs have signed the main motion, while another 33 have signed compromise amendments which ministers say also run counter to government policy.

There have been reports of the whips threatening potential rebels that they will damage their chances of a ministerial job or lose their seats when parliamentary boundaries are redrawn.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said Mr Cameron was paying the price for “dabbling with Euroscepticism” and failing to stand up to his own backbenchers.

“He has brought tomorrow’s events on himself,” he said.

“He’s the person who at the election was saying let’s renegotiate our whole relationship with Europe. It’s no wonder that his backbenchers are disappointed, because he has been pretending for a long time that he is one of them.”