Cameron urges Parl to ‘fight together’ on EU reforms

British Prime Minister David Cameron urged MPs on Wednesday to unite behind his drive to agree a series of European Union reforms at a Brussels summit next month ahead of Britain’s EU membership referendum.

“Let’s fight this together,” Cameron said as he defended a series of draft proposals put forward by the European Council president yesterday that have angered eurosceptics from his own Conservative Party.

“I do believe that with these draft texts... Britain is getting closer to the decision point,” he said in a parliamentary debate on the issue.

Cameron did not give a timing for the referendum but, asked about June 23 -- which has been mooted in British newspaper reports --he said the date would not be too soon after regional elections planned for May 5.

The British leader was responding to a joint letter from the first ministers of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales asking for the referendum not to be held in June because of their own elections in May.

He faced criticism from leading eurosceptic MPs including John Redwood and Bill Cash, as well as London mayor Boris Johnson -- a political ally who has expressed doubt on the proposals from Brussels.

“We’ve got a lot more to do on this,” Johnson told SkyNews ahead of the debate.

“The prime minister is making the best of a bad job. Let’s wait and see when this whole thing is agreed and try and see what it really means. Every bit of it,” he said.

Cameron said the proposals, which cover sovereignty powers of EU member states, protection for non-eurozone states and curbs on welfare payments for EU workers, were “the strongest package we’ve ever had.” 

“I believe we are making real progress in all four areas, but the process is far from over. There are details still to be pinned down,” he added.

“The question is not could Britain succeed outside the European Union. It’s how we would be most successful,” he said. 

Cameron defended his EU reform deal as he questioned in the Commons by London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Jabbing his finger on the despatch box to emphasise his point, Mr Cameron told his Conservative colleague, “I am not saying this is perfect, I am not saying the European Union will be perfect after this deal - it certainly won’t be - but will the British position be stronger and better? Yes it will.”

Mr Cameron is aiming to get agreement from all member states at a summit in Brussels in a fortnight, paving the way for a referendum on whether the UK should remain in the EU in June.

The prime minister urged Tory MPs to vote “with their hearts” based on what they believed was right for Britain and not what “might be advantageous” to them personally.

That did not stop Eurosceptic Tory MPs lined up to criticise it, with Jacob Rees-Mogg saying Mr Cameron had two weeks to salvage his reputation as a negotiator after serving up “thin gruel” which had been further watered down.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party wanted the UK to remain in the EU but he dismissed the prime minister’s renegotiations as a “smoke and mirrors sideshow” and said he had “ended up exactly where he knew he would be, making the case to remain in Europe”.

In a separate development, the first ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have written to Mr Cameron calling on him not to hold the EU referendum in June.

In a joint letter Nicola Sturgeon, Carwyn Jones, Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness warn that with elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in May, a referendum campaign running at the same time “risks confusing issues at a moment when clarity is required.”

They also say it would make it “virtually impossible” for political parties in these areas to work together on the referendum campaign while their own elections are in progress. Alan Johnson, who is leading Labour’s remain campaign, has said he will not oppose a June referendum.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Cameron insisted voters would be “perfectly capable” of coping with two separate ballots.