PM sets out battlelines on Europe
David Cameron has set out Conservative battlelines on Europe for the next election, saying voters will have a choice between taking powers back for Britain with the Tories or handing power over to Brussels with Labour.
In stormy clashes at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, Labour leader Ed Miliband accused Mr Cameron of "losing control" of his own party over the European Union (EU) after the PM failed to give a direct answer to his question of whether he believes Britain will be a member in five years' time.
Mr Miliband warned the PM that he will not be able to shut down internal party and coalition differences with a long-awaited speech on Europe in the Netherlands on Friday, at which he is expected to offer a referendum after the 2015 general election on a renegotiated settlement for UK membership.
"The problem is this: he thinks his problems on Europe will end on Friday," the Labour leader told MPs. "They are just beginning."
After facing the Commons, the PM was due to meet Conservative Cabinet ministers and some Tory backbenchers to discuss the content of Friday's speech. He declined to answer Mr Miliband's question in the Commons - whether he will give Tory ministers the green light to campaign for withdrawal in any referendum.
Meanwhile, a group of Conservative backbenchers released a blueprint for renegotiated membership, which they said could deliver "a new and sustainable position for the UK within the EU".
The Fresh Start Project's Manifesto for Change set out demands for five significant revisions to EU treaties, to repatriate powers on social and employment law, deliver an "emergency brake" on financial services issues, allow the UK to opt out of policing and crime measures, provide legal safeguards for the single market and abolish the European Parliament's second home in Strasbourg.
The proposals were warmly received by Foreign Secretary William Hague, who said in a foreword to the document: "Many of the proposals are already Government policy, some could well become future Government or Conservative Party policy and some may require further thought."
Fresh Start supporter and former minister Tim Loughton said that Mr Cameron should focus his energies on a "robust and achievable negotiation of our terms of membership" of the EU.
The manifesto offered "the best prospect of creating the new relationship we seek for the UK in the EU - effective co-operation without ceding democratic control - and... the best chance of reaching a relationship with Europe that the majority of the people of Britain are at last comfortable with", said Mr Loughton.
