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David Cameron seals deal with EU leaders, paving way for June referendum David Cameron will put 'heart and soul' into staying in Europe after sealing EU deal
(about 1 hour later)
David Cameron has succeeded in renegotiating the terms of Britain’s European Union membership, paving the way for a cabinet meeting on Saturday that will allow him to announce a referendum on 23 June. David Cameron has pledged to campaign with “all my heart and soul” to keep Britain inside a reformed EU in an in/out referendum after he succeeded in renegotiating the terms of Britain’s EU membership.
A marathon round of talks over two days, during which the prime minister managed just three hours sleep in the early hours of Friday morning, led to an agreement for the UK shortly after 9pm UK time.
Related: David Cameron gives press conference on new deal for Britain – liveRelated: David Cameron gives press conference on new deal for Britain – live
The prime minister tweeted that he had successfully negotiated a deal on Friday night. A marathon round of talks over two days, during which the prime minister managed just three hours of sleep in the early hours of yesterday morning, led to an agreement for the UK shortly after 9pm yesterday.
I have negotiated a deal to give the UK special status in the EU. I will be recommending it to Cabinet tomorrow. Press conference shortly. The prime minister will hold a cabinet meeting at 10am on Saturday where he will recommend that the government formally endorses the deal, allowing him to announce a referendum on 23 June.
But the deal was in danger of being overshadowed as Downing Street braced itself for an expected announcement by Michael Gove that he will campaign for Britain to leave the EU. The justice secretary, a longstanding Eurosceptic, has been agonising for months about whether to follow his conscience or support his friends and allies, Cameron and George Osborne, in favour of EU membership. A red-eyed prime minister, who kept going during the talks with packets of Haribo sweets, said at a late-night press conference at the end of the summit in Brussels: “In an uncertain world is this really the time to add a huge new risk to our national and our economic security? I don’t believe that is right for Britain. I believe we are stronger, safer and better off inside a reformed EU and that is why I will be campaigning with all my heart and soul to persuade the British people to remain in the reformed EU that we have secured today.”
The prime minister, who will be nervous that Gove’s expected decision will embolden other ministers and Boris Johnson to follow his lead, is likely to claim that he has strengthened his key demands since the European council president Donald Tusk outlined his draft agreement on 2 February. The key changes will mean that: But in a major setback for the prime minister he was forced to admit that his close cabinet friend and ally, the justice secretary Michael Gove, will use the lifting of collective cabinet collective responsibility to campaign to leave the EU.
The prime minister will now be thrown into the most perilous phase of his premiership, even though he will claim he has strengthened the draft deal for Britain that was seen even by some pro-Europeans as underwhelming. The prime minister sought to make light of Gove’s decision. “Michael is one of my oldest and closest friends but he has wanted to get Britain to pull out of the EU for about 30 years,” he said. “So of course I am disappointed that we are not going to be on the same side as we have this vital argument about our country’s future. I am disappointed but I am not surprised.”
Related: A prisoner to his party: David Cameron and his battle with the Tory right Gove, a longstanding Eurosceptic, has been agonising for months about whether to follow his conscience or support his friends and allies, Cameron and George Osborne, in favour of EU membership.
The expected move by Gove to support Brexit will electrify the Leave campaigns in the EU referendum and put pressure on the London mayor to follow his lead. Johnson has caused irritation in Downing Street by making a series of demands – firstly for two referendums, and then for a declaration of the sovereignty of parliament – while claiming he cannot make up his mind. The prime minister brushed off questions about whether Boris Johnson, who will now face pressure to follow Gove’s lead, will also campaign to leave. “Other politicians will have to make up their minds and they will have to make their own announcements. But in the end it is the British people that will decide.”
In a lengthy statement, which will form the basis of his main message in the referendum, the prime minister said that he had strengthened his key demands since the European council president, Donald Tusk, outlined his draft agreement on 2 February. The key changes will mean that:
Related: How quickly could Britain apply the EU emergency brake on benefits?
• A proposed “emergency brake” on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits will last for seven years. It will cover individuals for no more than four years, but the UK will be allowed to apply the overall restrictions for seven years.
Cameron said: “You will not get full access to our welfare system for four years … No more something for nothing. People can come to our country but they will not get out of our welfare system until they have paid in. That is a very profound change.”
• Restrictions on child benefit for EU migrants will kick in at a reduced rate – indexed to the rate of a migrant’s home country – for new migrants with immediate effect. Existing EU migrants will be paid at the lower rate from 2020. Eastern European countries had hoped that existing migrants would be exempt.
• Britain has a specific opt-out from the EU’s historic commitment to forge an “ever closer union among the peoples of Europe”.
• One country – in effect Britain – will have the right to impose a handbrake to refer contentious financial regulation to a meeting of EU leaders in the European council.
The prime minister said: “When we set off down this track and I said we would renegotiate our membership from a standing start, people said you will never hold that renegotiation, you’ll never hold that referendum, you will never get people to agree to the things we want. But look at what we have agreed today.”
But the prime minister will now be thrown into the most perilous phase of his premiership even though he claims he has strengthened the draft deal for Britain, which was seen as underwhelming – even by some pro-Europeans.
The move by Gove will electrify the leave side in the EU referendum and put pressure on Johnson to follow his lead. The London mayor has irritated Downing Street with a series of demands – firstly for two referendums and then for a declaration of the sovereignty of parliament – while claiming he cannot make up his mind.
Senior figures in Vote Leave, whose campaign director Dominic Cummings helped Gove deliver his controversial free schools programme as his senior special adviser, have been confident that they would win over a heavy-hitting minister.Senior figures in Vote Leave, whose campaign director Dominic Cummings helped Gove deliver his controversial free schools programme as his senior special adviser, have been confident that they would win over a heavy-hitting minister.
They hope a mainstream figure such as Gove will help them reach out in the referendum to middle-ground undecided voters, even if the justice secretary eases the blow for Cameron by not taking a high-profile campaigning role. They hope that a mainstream figure such as Gove will help them reach out in the referendum to middle-ground undecided voters, even if the justice secretary eases the blow for Cameron by not taking a high-profile campaigning role.
A victory for the Leave side in the referendum, which is expected to be held on 23 June if a deal is reached at this EU summit, would probably terminate Cameron’s premiership and kill off Osborne’s hopes of leading the Conservatives. Related: A prisoner to his party: David Cameron and his battle with the Tory right
A victory for the leave side in the referendum, which is expected to be held on 23 June, would probably terminate Cameron’s premiership and kill off Osborne’s hopes of leading the Tory party.
The prime minister would be told by the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers that he could not lead the two years of negotiations over Britain’s exit from the EU after failing so spectacularly in his goal of keeping the UK in a reformed EU.The prime minister would be told by the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers that he could not lead the two years of negotiations over Britain’s exit from the EU after failing so spectacularly in his goal of keeping the UK in a reformed EU.
Gove has been making clear in semi ­private that he has been torn by a profound belief that Britain should break free from the shackles of EU membership and a deep sense of loyalty to both the prime minister and the chancellor. The justice secretary knows that joining the Leave campaign could terminate the political careers of his two great friends and boost the leadership chances of Johnson and Theresa May. Gove has been making clear in semi-private that he has been torn by a profound belief that Britain should break free from the shackles of EU membership and a deep sense of loyalty to both the prime minister and the chancellor.
He knows that joining the leave campaign could terminate the political careers of his two great friends and boost the leadership chances of Johnson and Theresa May.
The prime minister, who has been kept fully informed about Gove’s thinking, showed the pressure when he warned EU leaders that it would be “suicide” to expect him to sell a watered-down deal to the British people.The prime minister, who has been kept fully informed about Gove’s thinking, showed the pressure when he warned EU leaders that it would be “suicide” to expect him to sell a watered-down deal to the British people.
In an impassioned plea on Thursday night, Cameron warned his counterparts in Brussels that they were risking political suicide if they expected him to run a referendum campaign to keep Britain in the EU without a “credible” deal. According to witnesses to the exchanges, the prime minister told the other EU leaders that he would lose the support of the cabinet and would lose the referendum if he did not obtain a satisfactory outcome. In an impassioned plea on Thursday night, Cameron warned his counterparts in Brussels that they were risking suicide if they expected him to run a referendum campaign to keep Britain in the EU without a “credible” deal. According to witnesses to the exchanges, the prime minister told the other EU leaders that he would lose the support of the cabinet and would lose the referendum if he did not obtain a satisfactory outcome.
European leaders reconvened their formal proceedings after a gap of nearly 20 hours at 8.45pm Brussels time on Friday. Donald Tusk, the European council president who had held a series of bilateral meetings with EU leaders through Thursday night and throughout the day on Friday, tabled a proposed agreement. European leaders reconvened their formal proceedings after a gap of nearly 20 hours at 8.45pm Brussels time yesterday. Donald Tusk, the European council president who had held a series of bilateral meetings with EU leaders through Thursday night and throughout the day yesterday, tabled a proposed agreement.
The delayed start to the formal negotiations prompted the prime minister to abandon plans to hold a cabinet meeting on Friday night. A cabinet will be held on Saturday if an agreement is reached overnight. The prime minister, who had three hours’ sleep on Thursday night after leaving the conference venue at 5.30am after two meetings with Tusk in the early hours, entered the talks last night needing to defend key elements of the proposed deal.
The prime minister entered the talks on Friday night needing to defend key elements of the proposed deal. By early evening it became clear that François Hollande was prepared to accept new protections for non-eurozone countries. Cameron, who spoke to Hollande during the day in the company of Tusk, assured the French president that the UK was not seeking to carve out a special deal for the City of London with a veto over financial services regulation.
By early evening it became clear that François Hollande was prepared to accept new protections for non-eurozone countries. Cameron, who spoke to the French president during the day in the company of Tusk, assured him that the UK was not seeking to carve out a special deal for the City of London with a veto over financial services regulation. Friday night’s agreement came after an intensive two days of negotiations in which he held three meetings with Tusk, two with the Polish prime minister Beata Maria Szydło, and a meeting each with Angela Merkel, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, Danish prime minister Lars Rasmussen and Czech prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
But Cameron entered the dinner with no certainty of agreement on his plans to restrict benefits for EU migrants in two areas:
Related: How quickly could Britain apply the EU emergency brake on benefits?
He is saying he has given ground by watering down his original idea for child benefit to be scrapped altogether with a system which would link the rate to the cost of living in a migrant’s home country. He expects the east Europeans to give ground in return.
Friday night’s dinner came after an intensive two days of negotiations in which Cameron held three meetings with Tusk, two with the Polish prime minister Beata Szydło, and a meeting each with Angela Merkel; the Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi; the Danish prime minister Lars Rasmussen; and the Czech prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
A move by Gove to support a British exit will not surprise Downing Street, which has been kept fully briefed on his agonising in recent weeks. No 10 had been confident at the turn of the year that the justice secretary would support the prime minister. But his well-known record as a strong Eurosceptic is understood to be weighing heavily on his mind.
Downing Street will be hoping that Gove will abide by the terms of a letter the prime minister sent to cabinet ministers when he agreed to lift the rules on cabinet collective responsibility once an EU deal has been agreed. This said that ministers who have a long track record of Euroscepticism would be free to campaign for a leave vote but they would be expected to do so in a friendly way.
No 10 will be hoping that Gove, known as the politest man in British politics, will live up to his reputation.