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We'd be MAD to leave Europe: David Cameron's covert battle against the 'madness' of cutting ties with EU

Prime Minister backing secret move by pro-European Tory MPs
Said to be 'pleased' that Barack Obama opposes the UK leaving EU
Mr Cameron's views mark sharp contrast with comments of George Osborne
Sources say PM does not believe withdrawal is 'realistic or desirable'
Disclosures come week before keynote speech on plans for EU referendum

By Simon Walters

PUBLISHED: 22:02, 12 January 2013 | UPDATED: 01:59, 13 January 2013

Support: David Cameron is secretly supporting a move by pro-European Tory MPs to warn of the dangers of the UK leaving the EU

Support: David Cameron is secretly supporting a move by pro-European Tory MPs warning of the dangers of the UK leaving the EU

David Cameron thinks it would be �mad� for Britain to leave the EU and is secretly backing a move by Tory MPs to warn of the perils of cutting all our ties with Brussels.

The Prime Minister was also �pleased� at US President Barack Obama sending a clear signal that the White House is opposed to the UK leaving the European Union.

The disclosures signal a key softening in tone in Mr Cameron�s rhetoric on Europe, and come a week ahead of his keynote speech on plans for an EU referendum after the next Election.

Moreover, his view that Britain cannot simply walk away from Brussels is in contrast with comments made by George Osborne on Friday.

The Chancellor made it clear he believed British withdrawal is still on the table, saying bluntly: �In order that we can remain in the EU, the EU must change.�

But those close to Mr Cameron say he does not believe withdrawal is �realistic or desirable�.

And he thinks hardline Eurosceptics who think Britain can go it alone regardless of the effect on trade and jobs � or what America and other key nations think � are �mad�.

The Prime Minister�s supporters deny a rift with Mr Osborne. They say the Chancellor�s comments were intended mainly as a �negotiating tactic� to force Brussels to make concessions, and make it easier to win a referendum on Britain�s continued links with the EU.

One insider said that Cameron and Osborne were deliberately using a �good cop, bad cop� approach to get a better deal for Britain, with the PM playing the good cop.

In a speech in the Netherlands on January 22, Mr Cameron is due to spell out how he intends to win back key powers for Westminster, as well as details of a referendum on Britain�s membership of the EU to be held after the next General Election.
Support: The Prime Minister is said to be 'pleased' that Barrack Obama has sent a clear message that the EU is opposed to Britain withdrawing from the UK

Support: The Prime Minister is said to be 'pleased' that Barack Obama has sent a clear message that the EU is opposed to Britain withdrawing from the UK

But there are growing fears among Eurosceptic Ministers that if he fails to make it clear that quitting is an option, it may spark a new Tory civil war with the growing number of MPs and grass roots supporters who want to leave.

Party tensions are likely to be inflamed by a claim that Downing Street has given covert backing to a public letter signed by around 20 Conservative MPs, which says quitting would cause �massive damage� to Britain economically and diplomatically.
Contrast: The PM's softened position differs from that of Chancellor George Osborne, who has made it clear that British withdrawal is till on the table

Contrast: The PM's softened position differs from that of Chancellor George Osborne, who has made it clear that British withdrawal is still on the table

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�The danger for the Tories is that because the Right-wing Eurosceptics are making the most noise, we could slide towards the exit door of the EU.�

Significantly, Mr Buckland added: �I have been told No 10 views my efforts as being helpful. The Prime Minister is a Eurorealist.

'He wants us to stay in the EU while having a debate about the terms of our membership, but it must not be used as a Trojan horse to get us to leave.�

Mr Buckland said his letter, due to be published this week, would provide �an important counterbalance for No 10 before the PM�s speech.�
Rift: Mr Cameron will consult Mr Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pictured, and French President Francois Hollande before his EU speech in an attempt to prevent a rift

Rift: Mr Cameron will consult Mr Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pictured, and French President Francois Hollande before his EU speech in an attempt to prevent a rift

His claim was reinforced by a close friend of the Prime Minister, who said he was glad that prominent businessmen such as Sir Richard Branson and PR guru Roland Rudd spoke out strongly last week against the dangers of British withdrawal.

At the same time, Philip Gordon, President Obama�s assistant secretary of state for European affairs, said it would be in American interests for Britain to remain in the EU.

Mr Cameron is convinced the case for quitting will collapse as it is studied in detail. �We have seen these so-called popular referendum campaigns disintegrate time and again,� said the friend.
Silent: Conservative MP Robert Buckland said: 'There is a silent majority out there who do not want Britain to leave the EU'

Silent: Conservative MP Robert Buckland said: 'There is a silent majority out there who do not want Britain to leave the EU'

�In the 1975 referendum on Europe, all the opinion polls said people would vote to pull out, but the opposite happened.

The same happened in last year�s referendum on ditching Parliament�s �first past the post� voting system.

�And when the PM ignored the Doubting Thomases and took on Alex Salmond over Scottish independence last year, support for Salmond melted like spring snow.

�The PM is happy to take on anti-EU fanatics who say �let�s get out� without thinking it through.�

Mr Cameron is irked by the rising popularity of UKIP and its leader Nigel Farage.

According to the polls, 16 per cent of the electorate would vote for the anti-Brussels party, largely as a result of Tory supporters switching allegiance.

�The PM is adamant that when Farage and his nutters are put under proper scrutiny, people will turn against them when they realise many of their leading individuals are barmy with deeply unpleasant views,� said one Conservative.

And Mr Cameron is dismissive of those who say Britain can emulate Norway and Switzerland, which thrive outside the EU.

�We are not Norway or Switzerland and we do not want to be,� said one aide.

In an attempt to prevent a rift with other nations, the Prime Minister will consult Mr Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande before his EU speech.

Mrs Merkel has already warned Mr Cameron not to �blackmail� the EU in to changing its relationship with the UK.

THE $1 TRILLION QUESTION: WHY THE WHITE HOUSE IS BANKING ON BRUSSELS - AND SANITY IN THE UK
Sir Christopher Meyer says the complexity and dangers of David Cameron laying out a strategy for renegotiating terms with the Eu 'can't be exaggerated'

Warning: Sir Christopher Meyer says the complexity and dangers of David Cameron laying out a strategy for renegotiating terms with the EU 'can't be exaggerated'

By SIR CHRISTOPHER MEYER

FORMER BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE US

Later this month, David Cameron will make the most difficult and important speech of his political career. He will lay out a strategy for renegotiating Britain�s relationship with the EU.

The complexity and dangers of this cannot be exaggerated. At stake is the unity of the Conservative Party, the survival of the Coalition, Cameron�s future as Prime Minister and party leader � and Britain�s place in the world.

If, as we are led to believe, he will in the next parliament put to a referendum the outcome of his negotiations, this could result in our leaving the EU. That would be the most momentous decision in British foreign policy since the Second World War.

Cameron�s big problem is that his speech will have to address multiple constituencies, some of whom are mutually hostile. Somebody significant somewhere will be mightily upset by his words. His speech has to keep on board Eurosceptics and Europhiles, on which Cabinet, Coalition and party unity depend.

It must say nothing that encourages further defections to UKIP. It must accommodate business leaders and City financiers, fearful for the loss of European markets, foreign investment and the clout that goes with being inside the world�s largest trading bloc.

Many would say that reconciling these interests is already impossible. Then there is abroad.

MPs talk cheerfully about repatriating or getting opt-outs from this or that EU policy, while retaining all the benefits of the single market.

But, as Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski warned, that will happen with great difficulty. As he said, why should the other 26 states agree to let this permanent trouble-maker, as they see us, eat � la carte from the EU menu?

But surely, you will reply, the threat of our withdrawal will concentrate minds. It certainly seems to have done in Berlin, where senior German politicians are growling about British �blackmail�. But do our EU partners really believe we would ever take such a momentous step?
Momentous: Sir Christopher Meyer said that would if Britain left the EU it would 'be the most momentous decision in British foreign policy since the Second World War'

Momentous: Sir Christopher Meyer said that would if Britain left the EU it would 'be the most momentous decision in British foreign policy since the Second World War'

Right now, I don�t think they do. They know Cameron would prefer to stay in and that today�s odds are probably against the �Outs� winning a referendum.

This is a point on which our nation and our EU partners deserve greater clarity.

As if all this wasn�t complicated enough, the Americans threw a grenade into the debate last week. Obama�s assistant secretary of state for European affairs, Philip Gordon, warned they wanted �a strong British voice� in the EU for the sake of US interests.

Many saw this as a breach of a key law of diplomacy � you don�t interfere publicly in the domestic political affairs of another country. But Europe has always blurred the lines between foreign and domestic policy.
Complication: He says the Americans 'threw a grenade into the debate' when they said they wanted �a strong British voice� in the EU for the sake of US interests

Complication: He says the Americans 'threw a grenade into the debate' when they said they wanted 'a strong British voice' in the EU for the sake of US interests

More to the point, the US has been intimately involved with Europe since the end of the Second World War. Without the Marshall Plan in 1947, under which the US gave billions of dollars in grants and loans to get European economies back on their feet, there may never have been a Common Market.

Washington believes this gives it the right to comment on European affairs, especially when it sees its national interest engaged.

No one should have been surprised by what Mr Gordon had to say. America�s consistent position over six decades has been to support European unity and a leading role for the UK within it.

This doesn�t mean that Americans always have a good grasp of detail. When I was ambassador in Washington, I was often asked if Britain was going to join the �euro-dollar�.

Nor does it mean that there aren�t endless rows between the two sides of the Atlantic about trade, unfair competition and the like.

But that is only to be expected in a relationship where the total value of two-way trade, services and investment is around $1 trillion. The US still sees Europe as a vital area for its interests, to be furthered by the enlargement and integration of the EU.

Yes, today�s America looks more and more to the dynamism of the Asian economies. But the EU still outranks China as America�s top trading partner. The Washington view has always been that Britain�s membership of the EU is a vital American interest.

This is what underpins the extravagant and often illusory rhetoric about a �special relationship� between our nations.

In the Second World War and the Cold War, Britain was literally the US aircraft carrier. Today it performs a similar economic role for American companies seeking a springboard into the EU.

All this could be lost to the US were Britain to leave the EU.

We are the sixth largest economy in the world and, after Germany, the second largest in the EU. The Americans rightly fear that the departure of such a large economic power would be intensely destabilising to the entire European project.

No wonder Philip Gordon spoke up as he did. It only reflected what the Americans have been saying in private.

Cameron will not have thanked Mr Gordon for making his task even more difficult. But, the harsh truth is that, in the great debate about Europe, the American position cannot be ignored.

It�s no good telling the US to keep its nose out of our affairs � not when a million British workers are employed by American companies.

This man is so stupid, does he think the British people will take notice of the USA or Germany.
Honda is sacking 800 jobs here and sending the work to AMERICA, says it all really.