Lib Dems split over tactics to use for referendum on EU membership

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/06/lib-dems-split-eu-referendum-tactics-concessions

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Senior Liberal Democrat ministers are at odds over tactics to adopt in future coalition negotiations with David Cameron on the contentious issue of a referendum on Britain’s EU membership.

The row erupted after the Financial Times and other newspapers, including the Guardian, were briefed by authoritative sources that the Lib Dems would agree in coalition negotiations with the prime minister to hold a referendum.

One source had said the Lib Dems would demand big trade-offs, covering constitutional reform and economic policy, in return for allowing Cameron to deliver on his pledge to hold an in/out referendum on Britain’s EU membership by 2017.

The source told the Guardian: “We would demand major concessions for agreeing to hold the referendum because this is a very big step that could put our membership of the EU at risk.”

The intervention, which reflects the thinking of English Lib Dem MPs in seats where they face Eurosceptic pressure, has deeply annoyed Nick Clegg who does not want to reveal his hand before possible coalition negotiations.

Clegg, who is passionately pro-European, wants to drive a hard bargain with Cameron on the EU and believes that speculating about a future coalition risks creating the impression that the party is taking the voters for granted. In a round of morning broadcasts the deputy prime minister said he stood by a law, introduced by the coalition, to hold an EU referendum if UK sovereignty is passed to the EU.

Clegg told Radio 4’s Today programme: “The Conservative party have been tearing themselves [apart] on Europe so they have now plucked out of thin air an arbitrary date, 2017, when a referendum would take place … on the back of what I predict will be a largely synthetic renegotiation of the terms of Britain’s membership that won’t satisfy their backbenchers.

“I can’t reasonably be expected to endorse a strategy which I don’t think makes either much sense in practice and confounds and contradicts what we have solemnly legislated on earlier on in this parliament.”

The contrasting signals reflect differences over tactics rather than deep strategic differences over Europe. The group pressing for an early concession on Cameron’s referendum believe that such a move would ease the pressure on them from Eurosceptics in their constituencies and would help them on the doorsteps to deal with anger about EU immigration.

They also believe that the Lib Dems may as well concede the referendum because the prime minister has made it a “red line” issue and made clear that he would resign if he failed to deliver on his pledge. This group acknowledges that the Lib Dems would need to win major concessions in other areas in return.

Clegg and his allies are adopting a different approach because they want to win concessions on Europe. These focus on timing – possibly delaying the referendum beyond the prime minister’s deadline of the end of 2017 to ensure that the renegotiations do not clash with the French presidential and the German federal elections in May and the late summer of that year. Clegg would also press hard to shape the renegotiations of Britain’s EU membership terms.