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As Cameron Visits Washington, Party Divides Over Europe As British Prime Minister Visits Washington, His Party Splits Over European Union
(about 9 hours later)
LONDON — An emotive clamor for Britain to consider quitting the European Union appeared to be spreading within the dominant Conservative Party, even as its leader, Prime Minister David Cameron, met with President Obama in Washington on Monday as an advocate of closer trade ties between the United States and the European bloc. LONDON — His visit to the White House overshadowed by toxic divisions at home over Europe, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain won the support of President Obama on Monday in seeking to calm a clamor within the Conservative Party for further and faster moves toward an exit from the European Union.
The debate in Britain — with two members of Mr. Cameron’s own cabinet saying they would favor withdrawal from the European Union if a vote were held “tomorrow” — seemed likely to undermine the British leader’s overtures to the Obama administration, which wants Britain to maintain its membership as a bridge between Washington and the rest of the European Union. Speaking after hosting talks with Mr. Cameron, Mr. Obama urged Britons not to give up on their membership in the union without first seeking to improve it. “You probably want to see if you can fix what is broken in a very important relationship before you break it off — that makes sense to me,” Mr. Obama said, while stressing that any decision was for the British people.
Speaking at a news conference in after talks with President Obama, Mr. Cameron said he would work to renegotiate Britain’s ties with the European Union before putting the question of membership to the voters and insisted that there was “not going to be a referendum tomorrow.” The statement reflected growing worries that one of America’s closest allies is moving toward leaving the 27-nation bloc.
That, he added, would present a “false choice between the status quo and leaving and I don’t think that’s the choice the British public wants or the British public deserves.” Britain holds the G-8 presidency, and Mr. Cameron will lead the annual gathering of the group next month in Northern Ireland. His meeting with Mr. Obama was part of his preparations for that gathering.
President Obama described Britain’s membership in the bloc as an expression of its influence in the wider world. “You probably want to see if you can fix what’s broken in a very important relationship before you break it off - makes some sense to me,” Mr. Obama added. But on Sunday, two members of Mr. Cameron’s own cabinet provoked fresh controversy over European policy by saying they would favor withdrawal from the European Union if a vote were held “tomorrow.”
Mr. Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the body and to hold an “in-out” referendum on membership by 2017 if he wins the next election in 2015. Facing demands within his party for a tougher line, the British leader rebuked cabinet ministers on Monday for “throwing in the towel” on an issue that has haunted Conservatives for decades and challenged successive leaders. At the news conference in Washington, Mr. Cameron repeated his strategy of renegotiating Britain’s ties with the union before holding a vote on membership in 2017. He insisted that there was “not going to be a referendum tomorrow,” saying that to hold one now would present a “false choice between the status quo and leaving, and I don’t think that’s the choice the British public wants or the British public deserves.”
“There isn’t going to be a referendum tomorrow so it is a hypothetical question,” Mr. Cameron told reporters as he flew to Washington. Earlier, Mr. Cameron said other critics within his party who dismissed his prospects of renegotiating a new deal with the union were taking an “extraordinary” position and “throwing in the towel before the negotiations even started.”
“What matters is making sure that we do everything we can to reform the E.U., make it more flexible, more open, more competitive and improve Britain’s relations with the E.U., change those relations so that when we have the referendum before the end of 2017 we give the British public a real choice, a proper choice.” The debate in the Conservative Party was particularly awkward for Mr. Cameron, who used his visit to Washington to push for a free-trade area for the European Union and the United States, a long-cherished objective of policy makers, and one that the British prime minister said would benefit the global economy.
Writing earlier in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Cameron said Britain and the United States had “a precious opportunity to transform the global economy — not by less openness and less free trade, but by more. And we must do everything possible to seize it.” “This deal could add as much as £10 billion to the British economy and £63 billion ($97 billion) to U.S. GDP,” he wrote in The Wall Street Journal. “But the rest of the world would benefit, too, with gains that could generate 100 billion euros ($132 billion) worldwide.”
Britain holds the G-8 presidency this year, and Mr. Cameron will lead the annual gathering of the group that is to be held in Northern Ireland next month. His meeting with Mr. Obama is an important part of his preparations for the gathering. Yet Mr. Cameron’s advocacy of such a pact is hardly strengthened by doubts over Britain’s commitment to remain part of the European Union.
“Trade is not a zero sum game where one nation’s success is another’s failure,” Mr. Cameron wrote. “Trade makes the cake bigger so everyone can benefit. Take the free trade area between Europe and the U.S. on which we hope to launch negotiations when President Obama is in Northern Ireland for the G8 next month.” Such strains in British politics are nothing new, and deep divisions over Europe have afflicted the Conservative Party on and off for a quarter of a century, contributing to the downfall of the party’s two last prime ministers.
“This deal could add as much as £10 billion to the British economy and £63 billion to U.S. GDP,” he said. “But the rest of the world would benefit too, with gains that could generate 100 billion euros worldwide.” In 2006, soon after he took over the leadership of his party, Mr. Cameron warned colleagues that they had alienated voters by “banging on” about Europe and tax cuts.
British reporters traveling with Mr. Cameron said his enthusiastic advocacy of a European project seemed to contrast with the mood among some in his party who have been unsettled by recent gains in local elections by the upstart United Kingdom Independence Party, which is openly hostile to the European Union. When the issue refused to go away, Mr. Cameron had hoped that, by going further than any of his predecessors in offering Britain’s first referendum on Europe since 1975, he would persuade his party to unite behind his strategy.
In response to its successes, several Conservative ministers have endorsed calls among lawmakers for Mr. Cameron to go beyond his promise of a referendum by 2017 by enshrining his pledge in law. Conservative rebels have called for a parliamentary vote on the issue on Wednesday. They seem certain to lose the ballot, but it is likely to highlight the depths of Conservative divisions. Though surveys show Britons to be highly skeptical about the European Union, it tends to be an issue well down their list of priorities. But the rise of the populist U.K. Independence Party, which wants Britain to quit the union, has sent shock waves through the ranks of Conservative lawmakers.
In interviews on Sunday, Education Minister Michael Gove and Defense Minister Philip Hammond both indicated that they would vote to leave the European Union if a referendum were held tomorrow. The idea of quitting the bloc, which was once seen as the preserve of a tiny, extreme faction of the party, is gaining growing respectability after endorsement by two former cabinet ministers last week. Meanwhile, ministers seeking support on the right of the party have been stressing their euroskeptic credentials.
“If the choice is between a European Union written exactly as it is today and not being a part of that then I have to say that I’m on the side of the argument that Michael Gove has put forward,” Mr. Hammond said. “I believe that we have to negotiate a better solution that works better for Britain if we are going to stay in.” In interviews on Sunday, Education Minister Michael Gove and Defense Minister Philip Hammond indicated that they would vote to leave the European Union if a referendum were held tomorrow.
In a regular column in The Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson, London’s Conservative mayor, also contributed to the discussion on Monday, saying he favored parliamentary moves to strengthen Britain’s negotiating position but supported Mr. Cameron’s timetable for a referendum. Worried by the advances of the U.K. Independence Party, many Conservative lawmakers want Mr. Cameron to go beyond his promise of an “in-out” referendum on membership of the European Union by 2017 — if he wins the next election in 2015 — by enshrining his pledge in law immediately.
“This renegotiation can only work if we understand clearly what we want to achieve: a pared-down relationship based on free trade and cooperation,” he said. “If we are going to have any chance of success in the negotiations, we need to show that the U.K. is willing to walk away.” Late Monday, British news media reported that Mr. Cameron was about to make a gesture by publishing draft legislation on the referendum. However, because his coalition partners do not support the idea of such a vote, this will not be given the backing of the government, making it less likely to become law.
But he also said many of Britain’s problems had nothing to do with the European Union. On Wednesday, lawmakers are due to vote on a motion criticizing the government’s program for legislating through a referendum — a move certain to advertise Conservative divisions.
“If we left the E.U.,” Mr. Johnson wrote, “we would end this sterile debate, and we would have to recognize that most of our problems are not caused by” membership of the European Union, “but by chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills, a culture of easy gratification and underinvestment in both human and physical capital and infrastructure.” Knowing the strength of feeling within his party, Mr. Cameron has allowed ministers to abstain and his party’s other lawmakers to vote against if they choose, a rare and unusual concession on such vote.
“Why are we still, person for person, so much less productive than the Germans? That is now a question more than a century old, and the answer has nothing to do with the E.U. In or out of the E.U., we must have a clear vision of how we are going to be competitive in a global economy,” he said. The prime minister’s spokesman put a brave face on the decision, arguing that it was no bad thing for a “spotlight to be shone” on his commitment to hold a referendum if he is re-elected.
But Emma Reynolds, a spokeswoman on Europe for the opposition Labour party, told the BBC that the Conservatives were demonstrating their well-known divisions over Europe. “It is history repeating itself,” she said. “We have seen this for the last 20 years — they are in complete chaos and disarray.”