The ConDem government was defeated in parliament on the EU budget last night – Halloween – after 53 Conservative MPs defied their party over the issue.
Tory rebels joined with Labour to pass an amendment calling for a real-terms cut in spending between 2014 and 2020. The amendment, passed by 307 votes to 294, is not binding on ministers, but is a blow to Call Me Dave Cameron’s authority on Europe before key talks next month.
We don’t regularly report the voting of Croydon’s MPs or the LibDems from nearby Sutton seats, mainly because they are usually such loyal lobby-fodder for their political bosses (rather than, perhaps, voting to reflect the interests and views of their constituents).
But on this occasion, we thought we’d check on whether the brave words about Brussels bureaucracy and European waste would be put into action by supporting the “Reckless motion” – put by Tory MP Mark Reckless – calling for EU budget cuts.
- Richard Ottaway (Con, Croydon South): voted against the amendment calling for EU budget cuts.
- Gavin Barwell (Con, Croydon Central): voted against the amendment calling for EU budget cuts.
- Paul Burstow (LibDem, Sutton and Cheam): voted against the amendment calling for EU budget cuts.
- Tom Brake (LibDem, Carshalton and Wallington): voted against the amendment calling for EU budget cuts.
Where this gets really interesting is that once the vote result came through last night, even one of the most devotedly loyal of Barwell supporters among Croydon’s Conservative councillors was welcoming the outcome in the Westminster lobby and expressing their opposition to EU waste.
Given the number of Croydon’s Tory councillors being courted by UKIP, and the way Boris Johnson is prowling around Croydon South in search of a safe parliamentary seat, could there be splits emerging in the local Conservative Association?
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Related articles
- Clegg to attack Labour over EU (bbc.co.uk)
- Osborne: Labour is being “opportunistic” just like Hague’s Tories (newstatesman.com)
- Tory MPs join Labour to push for EU budget cuts (independent.co.uk)
- Cameron suffers Commons defeat on EU budget (guardian.co.uk)
Tory Europhobes trying to make their presence felt … again! That’s all this is.
In the real world, last night’s argy-bargy in the Palace of Varieties means absolutely nothing.
I’m told that exercising the veto, if that’s what Call Me Dave decides to do, could actually cost us money and give farmers – including French ones – more of our hard-earned tax receipts than they would otherwise receive.
This familiar farrago proves once again that the Conservative Party has learnt nothing since the days of John Major – indeed Call Me Dave may still be dealing with many of the same ‘bastards’.
The Tories must stop believing everything they read in The Telegraph, the Mail and The Sun. Pining for an England of warm beer and successful cricket teams is as silly as hoping for a repeat of the 1966 World Cup final.
They would do better to read and inwardly digest Lord Heseltine’s excellent report, published yesterday, which suggests we could improve economically if we followed the example of forward-looking countries like Germany and opted for more regional devolution.
There are very important negotiations to be had with our European partners, but we won’t impress them by sending a gun-boat, which is apparently the approach favoured by the Granddad’s Army of head-banging recalcitrants who defied the government last night.
And as for the Labour Party’s political opportunism: that is beneath contempt.
David, It is interesting that you think that negotiations with the EU are possible.
In practice the EU does not negotiate, it just simply gets enough members to vote the real-terms increase through. I agree with you that last night’s vote was close to meaningless because CallMeDave will be forced by the EU to accept a real-terms. Of course it will be interesting when he has to return to Westminster having “negotiated” the eventual real-terms increase.
What is more interesting about last night’s vote is that MPs (on both sides of the House) are now, at last, realising that there is a groundswell of opinion amongst the electorate for a true in/out referendum. The EU is a dying economy and the real trade opportunities are in Asia and South America, which are not in the EU. But, more importantly, because we are in the EU we are not allowed to negotiate our own trade deals with those countries.
Now that the true cost of being a member of the EU is calculated to be around £5,000 per year per household (or around 10% of GDP) [I can provide the reference if required] we have to ask ourselves why we should pay yet more to be a member of this club. There have been numerous domestic cuts both locally and nationally, which have been outlined on this website. However, those cuts will get worse as we still have an annual deficit and our debt is still increasing.
UKIP would welcome Croydon Councillors (and indeed Labour Councillors) into the party. Defections are happening virtually every week nationally and I am more than happy to talk confidentially with anyone wishing to defect, but I am not aware of any courting happening at the moment.