Mark Pritchard, the secretary of the 1922 committee of Conservative MPs, is the most senior Tory yet to demand a vote on Britain’s membership of the European Union following the eurozone crisis. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Pritchard says that the EU has become an “occupying force” which is eroding British sovereignty and that the “unquestioning support” of backbenchers is no longer guaranteed. He says the Government should hold a referendum next year on whether Britain should have a “trade only” relationship with the EU, rather than the political union which has evolved “by stealth”. He warns that the Conservatives will see constituents “kick back” if taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for the failure of “unreformed and lazy” eurozone countries to introduce fully-fledged austerity measures. Mr Pritchard is a leading figure in a group of 120 Conservative MPs who are pushing the Prime Minister to set out a “clear plan” for pulling back from Europe. 
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Monday, September 19, 2011
Mark Pritchard, the secretary of the 1922 committee of Conservative MPs, is the most senior Tory yet to demand a vote on Britain’s membership of the European Union following the eurozone crisis. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Pritchard says that the EU has become an “occupying force” which is eroding British sovereignty and that the “unquestioning support” of backbenchers is no longer guaranteed. He says the Government should hold a referendum next year on whether Britain should have a “trade only” relationship with the EU, rather than the political union which has evolved “by stealth”. He warns that the Conservatives will see constituents “kick back” if taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for the failure of “unreformed and lazy” eurozone countries to introduce fully-fledged austerity measures. Mr Pritchard is a leading figure in a group of 120 Conservative MPs who are pushing the Prime Minister to set out a “clear plan” for pulling back from Europe. 
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George Eustice, a backbench MP and former close aide to Mr Cameron, is also demanding a “new relationship” with the EU.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, recently threw his weight behind the Eurosceptics by saying that Britain might prosper by loosening its ties with Europe.
Mr Pritchard’s intervention will further increase tensions within the Coalition.
Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Treasury minister, yesterday attacked Eurosceptics as being “enemies of growth”.
In a clear warning to Mr Cameron, Mr Pritchard says Tory MPs have become tired of tolerating the “Europhile views” of Liberal Democrat ministers.
He writes: “Conservative backbenches can no longer be taken for granted.
''Conservative MPs will not continue to write blank cheques for workers in Lisbon while people in London and Leicester are joining the dole queue.
“For many Britons, the EU has already become a kind of occupying force, setting unfamiliar rules, demanding levies, curbing freedoms, subverting our culture, and imposing alien taxes.
''In less than four decades, and without a single shot being fired, Britain has become enslaved to Europe — servitude that intrudes and impinges on millions of British lives every day.
“Brussels has become a burdensome yoke, disfiguring Britain’s independence and diluting her sovereignty.”
Mr Pritchard accuses Mr Cameron of failing to honour a “guarantee” to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
He says: “The Coalition should agree to a referendum on Europe asking whether Britain should be part of a political union or of the trade-only relationship we thought we had signed up to.
“This is a moderate proposition that would attract voters from across the political spectrum, unite many on the Left and Right within Parliament and galvanise the support of most in the media.” Mr Cameron recently ruled out a referendum on the EU asking whether Britain should opt in or out. Mr Pritchard believes his “stepping stone” approach will provide a compromise.
He says that if Britain votes for a trade-only relationship with the EU, there should then be a referendum about membership on the date of the next general election.
Mr Pritchard writes: “The British have grown weary of Europe. The Coalition government should end decades of political appeasement by successive governments and champion freedom and democracy for Britain – and agree a referendum.”
Mr Cameron and George Osborne, the Chancellor, know that the unfolding crisis in the eurozone will give the Conservative party’s Eurosceptic MPs a chance to argue more powerfully for a realignment of Britain’s position in the EU.
The 2010 intake of new Tory MPs is regarded as the most Eurosceptic in a generation and large numbers of government ministers remain privately anti-Brussels.
Some hope that Mr Osborne, the Conservative election strategist, will advance a series of policies that can address the concerns of his party before the next election and in the process tap into the worries of voters.
But Mr Osborne’s Liberal Democrat deputy at the Treasury, Mr Alexander, yesterday criticised those who want to take Britain away from the EU.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told Liberal Democrat activists: “Sadly, Eurosceptics on left and right fail
to understand Winston Churchill’s
central insight that sharing sovereignty strengthens influence and isolation weakens us.
“Scottish Nationalists make the same mistake. We will never let the anti-Europeans or nationalists frustrate our national interest. They are enemies of growth.”
Backbencher Mr Eustice is spearheading the challenge to the Prime Minister over the EU.
Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers want the party leadership to act more decisively on Europe and return some powers to Westminster.
Investors are poised for another week of turmoil in the global financial markets as finance ministers and central bankers gather in Washington for the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting amid the biggest crisis since the collapse of Lehman Brothers three years ago.
A weekend meeting of EU finance ministers in Poland failed to resolve any of the issues in the beleaguered eurozone, instead casting more doubt over the future of Greece by delaying a decision on a much needed €8bn (£7bn) bailout payment until next month. Reports in Greece suggested the EU, IMF and European Central Bank were asking for further austerity measures, including 100,000 public sector job cuts, in an attempt to resolve Greece's budget deficit and avoid a default.
Greece's prime minister, George Papandreou, who has cancelled plans to attend the IMF meeting in favour of dealing with the crisis, held an emergency cabinet meeting on Sunday to discuss additional cutbacks before a conference call with the EU and the IMF on Monday.
Meanwhile Moody's is expected to announce imminently whether it plans to downgrade Italy's credit rating, a move that would escalate the European debt crisis and cause problems for French banks exposed to the country's debt.
Many observers believe last week's news of a co-ordinated plan by five central banks to pump dollars into the system was designed to improve liquidity in the event of further turmoil. But the political pressures within the eurozone were in focus once more following a predicted defeat for German chancellor Angela Merkel in another state election at the weekend.
Sony Kapoor, of the economic policy thinktank Re-Define, said: "The inability of EU leaders to handle the problem of Greece, one of the smaller economies in the EU, does little to inspire confidence in their capacity to tackle the much larger threat posed by the continuing failure of Italy and Spain to be able to refinance themselves at reasonable costs."
Throwing other people's money at the problem is not a solution, it is kicking the can down the road.
Greece is, de facto, in default today (this week I was invited to lend money to the Greek government at an interest rate of 93%, as compared with the 1.6% Lloyds TSB is offering).
As Nicola Horlick said on Thursday on BBC's Question Time, a default would be "Lehmanns times 1,000", but every alternative would be worse.
Right now we are sacrificing ordinary European people - especially Greeks - as cannon fodder, pretending black is white, to defend the Merckel/Sarkozy hubris that the Euro is somehow an infallible project to be defended at any price.
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