Conservative right-wingers are increasingly frustrated with the compromises they feel party leader Cameron is being forced to make on Europe and other leading issues to keep the support of the pro-European Liberal Democrats, the minority partner in Britain’s 16-month-old coalition government.
They are starting to flex their muscles over Europe, seeing the euro zone debt crisis as an opportunity to press their demands for Britain to repatriate powers from Brussels or even to withdraw from the 27-nation bloc.
Their growing assertiveness could force Cameron to take a tougher stance in negotiations with European partners, feed parliamentary rebellions and put extra strain on the Conservatives’ coalition with the center-left Lib Dems.
Last week saw the emergence of a new Euroskeptic group in parliament and its first meeting was attended by 120 Conservative legislators. Its goal is to redefine Britain’s ties with the European Union, a relationship that has been uneasy ever since Britain joined the then “common market” in 1973.
“We think post the euro zone crisis, particularly if the euro zone members enter a new treaty together, that will require Britain to think very carefully about where it sits within the EU,” Conservative MP George Eustice, a founder of the new group, said.
Eustice said he believed that Britain should be able to take back powers from Brussels in areas such as employment and social policy and justice and home affairs.
The EU may need a new treaty if the euro zone opts for deeper fiscal integration in response to the euro zone crisis and Eustice said that could be the moment for Britain to press for a renegotiation of the basis of its EU membership.
Britain’s pro-European deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, also voiced some doubts about closer integration, saying on Tuesday it would have been a “huge error” to have joined the euro and questioned whether it would happen anytime soon.
“I doubt very, very much that during my political lifetime, certainly as leader of the Liberal Democrats, we will see the United Kingdom enter into the euro,” he said in a BBC radio interview at his party’s annual convention.
Asked whether it would have been right for Britain to join the euro at its launch, he replied: “Clearly, with the benefit of hindsight, you can say it would have been a huge, huge error.”
Eustice advocates a “pick and mix” Europe in which all members sign up to some core functions but can opt in or out of others.
Eustice said no one wanted a return to the fights over Europe of the 1990s. The aim of the group, which will be open to MPs of other parties, is to suggest ideas.
But he added: “If, obviously, in two or three years’ time, they have ducked all the challenges ? people may up the ante and put pressure on them, but it’s not a time for that now.”
Eustice said he did not believe that Britain should pull out of the European Union altogether, seeing economic benefits in Britain being part of the EU’s vast single market.
But some other Conservative members of parliament, such as Douglas Carswell, say Britain should leave and are demanding a referendum on whether Britain should stay in or quit the EU.
“You can’t trust the political elite to decide our relations with Europe. There has to be a referendum and there will be eventually,” Carswell said.
Growing Conservative dissent could translate into more parliamentary rebellions against coalition legislation.
Conservative MP Mark Pritchard warned coalition leaders in a column in The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Monday that unquestioning political support from Conservative lawmakers on EU issues could no longer be taken for granted.
Cameron has rejected calls for a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU but, in a gesture to Euroskeptics, said Britain could demand the return of some powers from Brussels as the price for agreeing to a new EU treaty.
Conservative Foreign Secretary William Hague blamed the Lib Dems in a recent interview with The Times newspaper for cramping the Conservatives on Europe and raised the prospect of Britain standing increasingly apart from the EU core.
Cameron is aware of the dangers that divisions over Europe pose, having worked as a researcher and adviser under the last two Conservative governments, headed by Margaret Thatcher and John Major in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Both premiers got involved in fierce battles over closer European integration that diverted them from tackling pressing domestic issues and damaged the party’s image with voters.
The government has played down any alarm about the launch of the new Euroskeptic group, saying it does not signal an outbreak of intra-party feuding over Europe.
“If we can have a constructive debate about the future shape of Europe, the nature of Britain’s engagement within Europe, that is something that is healthy,” Europe Minister David Lidington told Reuters.
Analysts say there are two reasons why a Conservative revolt over Europe is likely to be less serious than it was under Major’s government.
In contrast to the 1990s when it was split between pro-Europeans and Euroskeptics, today’s Conservative Party is almost uniformly Euroskeptic.
The coalition has a comfortable 83-seat working majority in parliament, meaning it is less liable to be held to ransom by Euroskeptics than Major’s government, which had a tiny majority.
“This is more a kind of warning shot across the government’s bows — making sure they don’t backslide on any of their commitments,” said Tim Bale, politics professor at Sussex University and an expert on the Conservatives.
He points out that Conservative governments have a history of talking tougher on Europe than they act.
“He (Cameron) might be able to negotiate a few symbolic opt-outs ... It’s very difficult to see other European countries allowing the UK a free ride on their crisis,” he said.
In last year’s election, Cameron campaigned on a promise to work to bring back to London key powers over legal rights, criminal justice and social and employment legislation and to pass a law preventing Britain from handing new powers to Brussels or joining the euro without a referendum.
Cameron abandoned the pledge to repatriate powers in coalition negotiations with the Lib Dems last year.
His government has passed a law to prevent the transfer of further powers from London to Brussels without a referendum, but it failed to satisfy Euroskeptics because ministers have discretion in many cases over when a referendum is required.
Martin Horwood, a Lib Dem member of parliament, said it would be unwise for the Conservatives to take advantage of the euro zone’s problems to try to renegotiate Britain’s membership.
“Europe is already in the middle of one crisis. They really don’t need British MPs making life even more complicated,” he said.
