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At United Nations, British Leader Struggles With Dissent Back Home
Cameron Survives Europe Vote by Narrower Margin Than Forecast
(about 5 hours later)
LONDON — Even as he is scheduled to debate global issues of poverty and development at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron faced the possibility of an embarrassing parliamentary vote back home on the corrosive issue of Britain’s relationship with the European Union that has divided his party and his coalition.
LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron survived a potentially humiliating challenge to his policies toward the European Union on Wednesday by a closer margin in Parliament than had been forecast, illuminating the depth of dissent within his party over an issue that has divided it for decades.
Mr. Cameron is to end a three-day visit to the United States on Wednesday, returning only after Parliament in London most likely will have voted on a resolution by rebels within his Conservative Party criticizing him over his policies on Europe.
In a parliamentary ballot, 130 lawmakers, most of them from Mr. Cameron’s Conservative Party, voted in favor of a resolution criticizing his handling of a burgeoning crisis over whether Britain should leave the 27-nation European bloc that is seen as a cornerstone of the world’s economic and political architecture. British analysts had forecast that around 80 legislators would support the resolution.
John Bercow, the Parliament speaker, is expected to announce on Wednesday whether he will allow the vote.
Mr. Cameron has promised an “in-out” referendum on British membership in the European Union by 2017 if he wins the next election in 2015. He has also pledged to renegotiate Britain’s ties to the body. But many Conservative lawmakers want him to move faster and more decisively, and the ballot measure Wednesday criticized Mr. Cameron for failing to enshrine his European pledges immediately in law.
Mr. Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the European Union and to hold an “in-out” referendum on British membership by 2017 if he wins the next election in 2015. But Conservative dissidents want to castigate him for failing to include the pledge in his current legislative program.
Mr. Cameron was not in Parliament for the vote on Wednesday evening because he was winding up a scheduled three-day visit to the United States with a debate on global issues of poverty and development at the United Nations.
While those arguments unfold, British news reports said, Mr. Cameron is scheduled to spend the final day of a visit to the United States at the United Nations, advocating a 10-point plan to end extreme poverty and hunger by 2030.
Speaking in New York, Mr. Cameron sought to play down the impact of the vote, according to the Press Association news agency. “I don’t think people can read in anything really to the scale of that free vote, not least because only the Conservative Party has a very clear position and a very clear policy about what needs to happen in Europe,” he said.
“Obviously we want to be lifting up the world’s poorest,” the Press Association news agency quoted an unidentified British official as saying. “But the best way to do that is to have more specific actions rather than some overarching high-level message.”
The rebellion among Conservative lawmakers nonetheless highlighted the party’s vulnerability to decades of corrosive debate about its ties to a European bloc that British skeptics depict as a monstrous superstate devouring British sovereignty.
Mr. Cameron’s statesmanship seemed offset by domestic political woes, however, and Britain’s allies worry that the country is moving toward an exit from the union. On Monday, after meeting Mr. Cameron at the White House, President Obama urged Britons not to give up on their membership in the 27-nation bloc without first seeking to improve it.
Even though Conservatives know how internal fights over Europe damaged their previous governments in the 1990s, the issue refuses to go away, leaving Mr. Cameron trapped between those in his party who want to move quickly to leave the union and his junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, who want Britain to stay in.
On Tuesday, Mr. Cameron tried to quell dissent by publishing a draft law enshrining his promise of a plebiscite on the single question: “Do you think that the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union?”
The rebels’ demand for a vote was largely symbolic because their bill had almost no chance of passing Parliament without the official support of the government.
But his maneuver failed to defuse anger among some Conservative lawmakers, highlighting the party’s vulnerability to decades of corrosive debate about its ties to a bloc that skeptics depict as a monstrous superstate devouring British sovereignty.
Even though Conservatives know how internal fights over Europe damaged their previous governments in the 1990s, the issue refuses to go away, leaving Mr. Cameron trapped between those in his own party who want to move faster toward an exit from the union and his junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, who want Britain to stay in.
The rebels’ demand for a vote is largely symbolic because their bill has almost no chance of passing Parliament without the official support of the government.
The debate has enabled opposition politicians to argue that Mr. Cameron has lost control of his party over the issue, just as the last Conservative prime minister, John Major, did in the 1990s. They argue that Conservative critics of the European Union are determined to quit the bloc and therefore will not be satisfied by any concessions short of an exit.
The debate has enabled opposition politicians to argue that Mr. Cameron has lost control of his party over the issue, just as the last Conservative prime minister, John Major, did in the 1990s. They argue that Conservative critics of the European Union are determined to quit the bloc and therefore will not be satisfied by any concessions short of an exit.
But Mr. Cameron rejected the charge, telling the BBC that his “act of leadership” in making the referendum pledge in January had kick-started the current debate on the European Union.
But Mr. Cameron rejected the charge.
He said that differences with the Liberal Democrats over Europe were well known, but that his policy would win votes.
“When the dust settles on this, what people will see is one party, the Conservative Party, offering this very clear, very compelling choice in the national interest, reforming the E.U., changing Britain’s relationship with it and giving people the chance of an in-out referendum,” he said.
“When the dust settles on this, what people will see is one party, the Conservative Party, offering this very clear, very compelling choice in the national interest, reforming the E.U., changing Britain’s relationship with it and giving people the chance of an in-out referendum,” Mr. Cameron said.
Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury and a Liberal Democrat cabinet minister, highlighted his party’s more pro-European stance.
“During this Parliament we will exercise our influence to the utmost to win the arguments in Britain’s national interest in favor of jobs, investment and growth in this country,” Mr. Alexander said.
The mood among Conservative lawmakers against the European Union has intensified in recent months because of the rise of the populist United Kingdom Independence Party, which wants Britain to leave the bloc and place strict controls on immigration.
Stephen Castle reported from London, and Alan Cowell from Paris.
Stephen Castle reported from London, and Alan Cowell from Paris.
