David Cameron rebukes ministers for breaking ranks over EU

Conservative tensions over Europe deepened today when David Cameron rebuked senior Cabinet ministers for breaking ranks on the issue.

He spoke out as a senior Tory loyalist Sir Malcolm Rifkind warned that in-fighting over the EU is damaging the Prime Minister’s authority.

Commons Speaker John Bercow signalled that a vote demanded by rebels to attack the lack of a referendum Bill in the Queen’s Speech could be held on Wednesday while Mr Cameron is in America for talks.

Speaking on his way to the US, Mr Cameron dismissed as “hypothetical” a question of whether he would vote for withdrawal from the EU if a referendum were held now.

Education Secretary Michael Gove and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond have both said they would vote to leave if a referendum were held immediately.

“There isn’t going to be a referendum tomorrow, so it’s a hypothetical question,” said Mr Cameron, who also criticised ex-ministers Lord Lawson and Michael Portillo for doubting that negotiations could secure a better deal for Britain in Europe.

“The idea of throwing in the towel before the negotiation has started is a very strange opinion,” he said.

A total of 55 Tory MPs have broken ranks by backing an unprecedented amendment to the Queen’s Speech expressing “regret” that it did not contain a Bill to enshrine Mr Cameron’s promise of a referendum before 2017. They include London MPs Zac Goldsmith, Nick De Bois and Bob Stewart.

A rebellion is expected if the vote is agreed by Mr Bercow. Downing Street has given MPs and ministerial aides a free vote and asked ministers to abstain — a sure sign that the whips are warning they cannot herd MPs into line.

Sir Malcolm, the former foreign secretary, appealed to the rebels to back off. “This amendment isn’t going to get carried,” he argued. “So all those supporting it will have achieved is they will have split their own party, they will, as you have seen, cast questions over the Prime Minister’s authority, and indirectly, unintentionally, they will be helping the Labour party’s prospects at the next election.”