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David Cameron
David Cameron is likely to hear claims from Eurosceptic Tories that he has failed to deliver on his manifesto commitments. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
David Cameron is likely to hear claims from Eurosceptic Tories that he has failed to deliver on his manifesto commitments. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

David Cameron to face MPs over EU renegotiation plans

This article is more than 8 years old

PM is likely to face pressure from Eurosceptic Tory MPs as he delivers statement on settlement proposed by Donald Tusk

David Cameron’s effort to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s EU membership faces its first major parliamentary tests – at Westminster and in Strasbourg – as Eurosceptic Conservatives warned that the prime minister had failed to deliver on his manifesto commitments.

Cameron, who avoided an urgent question in the House of Commons on Tuesday as he delivered his response to the settlement proposed by the European council at a Siemens plant in Wiltshire, is likely to face pressure from Eurosceptic Tories at Westminster. He will make a statement to MPs on the settlement proposed by the European council president, Donald Tusk, after his weekly session of prime minister’s questions.

Downing Street received a more positive reception in the European parliament in Strasbourg, where MEPs embarked on an initial debate on the reform package. Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, told MEPs that the Tusk proposals amounted to a fair deal for all member states.

Juncker, who made a point of speaking in English as he outlined the proposed settlement for the UK, said: “The commission supports this text. I have always said I wanted the UK to remain a member of the EU on the basis of a fair deal. The settlement that has been proposed is fair for the UK and fair for the other 27 member states, it is also fair for the European parliament.”

The commission president added that the proposal by Tusk acknowledged a key UK demand – that some EU member states do not want to integrate as deeply as others. Juncker said: “The settlement proposed by president Tusk recognises that not all member states participate in all areas of the EU policy. The UK benefits from more protocols and opt-outs than any other member state. This is why, as a matter of law and a matter of fact, the concept of ever closer union has already assumed a different meaning in its case.

“The settlement recognises this; it recognises that if the UK considered that it is now at the limits of its level of integration then that is fine. At the same time it makes clear that other member states can move towards a deeper degree of integration as they see fit.”

Bert Koenders, the Dutch foreign minister whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, expressed confidence that a deal can be reached at the European council on 18-19 February.

Koenders told MEPs: “All governments will now study the proposals. Yet I do believe it paves the way for an agreement in the European council. Further discussions are of course needed and some of the issues are particularly complex. But I am sure a solution can be found if there is ample political will.”

But Liam Fox, the former Tory defence secretary who is a leading figure in the campaign to leave the EU, said the Tusk proposal showed that Britain was now a member of the wrong club.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Our aims were very limited and we got a limited version of that back. I think the prime minister was genuinely attempting to get a better deal but what is increasingly obvious is that the EU is very set in its ways. It is intending to move, as treaties say, towards ever closer union. So, in my view, what we can get at best is better membership of the wrong club.”

The debates came after Theresa May, the home secretary, indicated she was prepared to campaign in favour of Britain’s membership of the EU, boosting the prime minister, who hopes to ensure the support of cabinet heavyweights. The home secretary, at one time considered as a possible leading figure in the no campaign, described the proposals as the “basis for a deal”.

But Eurosceptic cabinet ministers planning to campaign for an exit expressed unease that the prime minister was effectively campaigning in favour of EU membership while they were denied the right to speak in favour of a British exit until the negotiations have been concluded.

Chris Grayling, one of at least four cabinet ministers who are expected to campaign to leave the EU, is understood to have raised his concerns at the cabinet on Tuesday morning shortly before the publication of the Tusk documents.

The prime minister is understood to have told Grayling that his rules for the suspension of collective responsibility should remain in place to avoid the spectacle of ministers tying themselves up in knots.

Grayling will be joined in the Brexit camp by Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, Theresa Villiers, the Northern Ireland secretary, and John Whittingdale, the culture secretary. Priti Patel, who attends cabinet as employment minister and first made her name as a member of the late James Goldsmith’s Referendum party, may also campaign to leave.

The cabinet ministers planning to campaign to leave the EU felt emboldened by the publication of the Tusk proposals for a new settlement on the UK’s EU membership terms which fell well short, they believe, of the Tory party’s manifesto commitments. The headline proposal was to introduce an “emergency brake” that allows EU member states to restrict access to in-work benefits for up to four years if they can prove that their welfare system is facing intolerable pressure.

Juncker indicated to the prime minister in Brussels last week that Britain would have the right to apply the emergency brake if the people voted yes in a referendum although its use would have to be approved by the European council.

The prime minister said that Tusk’s proposals on the most contentious area of welfare reforms amounted to a “very strong and powerful package” and added that he would even recommend EU membership if the UK were currently outside the union.

But one senior Eurosceptic minister, who had considered supporting the prime minister, has decided to campaign for the UK to leave the EU after concluding that the Tusk proposals had fallen well short of the UK’s original demands.

The emergency brake will not deliver an outright ban on in-work benefits for four years because they will be phased in over four years for individual workers. Other Whitehall sources said the proposal will be “undeliverable” because the benefit in question – tax credits – is being phased out as it is replaced by universal credit.

The prime minister will not be able to deliver the curbs on benefits for EU citizens working in Britain for at least 18 months, under the terms of a historic draft deal crafted to try to keep the UK in the European Union. In a separate document, the European commission granted that such an emergency already obtained in the UK. But changing the rules to facilitate the brake will take time, hobbling hopes in London that the lever can be pulled quickly.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Cameron statement to the Commons on the EU referendum - Politics live

  • Cameron says 'hand on heart' he has achieved manifesto's EU goals – Politics live

  • Theresa May signals support for UK-EU membership deal

  • EU renegotiation: UK wins partial concession on migrant worker benefits

  • EU deal key points: what Cameron wanted and what he got

  • EU reform offers UK best of both worlds, says Cameron – video

  • Corbyn criticises Cameron for not giving parliament EU briefing – video

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