The Waugh Room

Monday 24th October 2011 | 07:38

Cam kicks the can - and his own MPs

David Cameron recently ridiculed his fellow European leaders for "kicking the can down the road" on the need to grapple with the eurozone crisis.

But when it comes to way he's handled the issue of an EU referendum and repatriated powers, it's now obvious that the Prime Minister is himself guilty of trying to kick the can as far as he could.

As George Eustice rightly pointed out on ConHome yesterday, the PM has for some years been singularly ill-prepared for a possible renegotiation of the UK's relations with Brussels. Every time a Eurosceptic raised the issue, the same answer came back from the leadership: manana, manana. Or as the Irish would put it, the issue was 'on the long finger'.

When it comes to using a new EU Treaty as an opportunity to redefine our relations with the EU or grab back powers (such as fishing rights or workers' rights policy), the PM, William Hague and No.10 have all stressed the same thing: there's no "immediate prospect" of a treaty change. They've tried to buy time but it hasn't worked on their backbenches, many of whom think that now is exactly the time to plan for what Britain can get out of a euro collapse.

The holding line - 'calm down dears, just wait til our next election manifesto' - is not fooling anyone any more. Maybe that's why the PM gave a tiny, teeny hint last night that he will seek to exploit any Treaty change sooner rather than later. Then again, that may only because the Germans (rather than his own MPs) are forcing the pace.

Tory MPs have tolerated the 'kick the can' approach to a referendum, but are now clearly prepared to put down a marker of their frustration. When it comes to the Nuttall motion, what's surprised many is the clumsy way Cameron has decided not just to kick the can but to kick his own backbenches in the process.

The root of the problem seems to be Cameron's detoxification strategy for the Tory brand. Desperate not to be seen as 'the same old Tories', he turned down the volume on Europe as an issue at the last election. 

Of course, he tried the same detoxifying trick on the NHS too, gagging Andrew Lansley from talking about health service reform in the general election campaign and allowing him only to chant 'moratorium on hospital closures' (a pledge that has itself come to be unwound). Many Tories believe the error of that strategy was shown in spades when the NHS Bill came as a complete shock to the voters. Not talking about the issue made it much, much harder to argue for reform when it was needed.

For Eurosceptics, the lack of a willingness to confront the issue of a referendum has been similarly debilitating. Many of them scoffed when Cameron gave his infamous 'cast-iron guarantee' to Sun readers that he would stage a referendum. (Amazingly, the Sun never gave him a proper kicking for reneging on it). They saw his subsequent decision to break his promise as proof that he just wanted the whole problem of Europe to dissolve away without any debate.

Feelings are running so high that in recent days there's been a mood on the Tory benches not dissimilar to that weird period just after the Coalition was formed, when No.10 came up with their short-lived but potentially explosive plan to neuter the 1922 Committee. Back then the whips and Downing Street blamed each other and we're seeing Groundhog Day's alarm clock go off again over the Nuttall motion.

It's frankly staggering that those around the PM couldn't see that the boundary review would make MPs more rather than less likely to rebel. I'm told there are at least three head-to-head Tory selection contests where one MP is going to back Nuttall and their rival is remaining loyal. No prizes for guessing which loyalty will be rewarded by local Tory associations.

Having marched his whips to the top of the hill, Cameron may yet march them back down again after meeting PPSs and others later today. Let's not forget that it was on Mark Pritchard's circus animals ban motion that the whips originally imposed a three-liner, only to retreat at the last minute and downgrade it to a one-liner. Indeed, some would say that the whips' and No.10's performance on Nuttall has had all the finesse of a circus clown - complete with comedy foam pies and giant, size-20 shoes.

When the dust settles later this week, Cameron will still have to deal with and listen to his Parliamentary party on Europe. If he wants to win an outright majority - or even a minority - Government at the 2015 election, he will need the Right on board as part of a unified fighting machine.

In order to get them behind him, at some point he'll have to stop kicking the can of repatriated Brussels powers down the road. The only question is when exactly that will be.