British PM gets louder on Europe as party cracks widen
30 أيلول 2014 14:37
Ahead of a general election which could prompt a referendum on Britain leaving the EU, Prime Minister David Cameron has become the latest Conservative leader struggling to hold his party together over Europe.
Cameron has been hit by the defection of two MPs to the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) ahead of the Conservative Party conference this week, leading to louder rhetoric on what has long been an open wound.
The prime minister told the BBC on Tuesday that he felt "about a thousand times more strongly about our UK" than the European Union and would argue for staying in a reformed Europe only for "pragmatism".
"If I thought that it wasn't in Britain's interests to be in the EU I wouldn't argue for us to be in it," he told another interviewer.
But the bickering within the party has not stopped and was evident in Birmingham at this, the party's last conference before elections in May 2015.
"I think at the end of the day, we have got no alternative but to get out," said one delegate, Christopher Sills, attending a packed meeting entitled "How To Achieve Sweeping Reform In Europe".
"They want to go down the route of becoming a European superstate, France, Germany and all that," he said.
Last year, Cameron promised a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union in 2017 if he wins the general election outright, in a bid to placate his restive party.
Roger Kendrick, another delegate, predicted that Britain would remain in Europe following a referendum.
"I think we'll probably stay in and it will be a disaster," he said.
"I'm not against Europe as such -- the problem is in my view (that) Europe is about regulation and harmonization."
Delegates were being asked by a TV show to vote by posting balls into two glass containers on whether they would stay in the EU or leave.
The number of balls in the jars looked about evenly split.
Divisions over Europe could render it even harder for Cameron, whose center-right party leads a coalition government and is trailing the main opposition Labor in opinion polls, to win a second term.
There is pressure too on the prime minister from those who definitely want to stay in Europe, like British businesses which issue regular polls and reports showing the benefits of membership.