Nick Clegg thwarts plan to ditch EU laws Douglas Carswell, the Eurosceptic Conservative MP for Clacton, welcomed the "one-off opportunity" to return powers to London, but called on ministers to "go even further" and hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU. Lord Oakeshott, a former Lib-Dem Treasury spokesman, said: "This was just throwing some red meat to the rabid anti-Europeans on the Tory Right and in Ukip, and frankly there's no difference between them." A senior Lib Dem source indicated that the Deputy Prime Minister had stopped Mrs May announcing a concrete decision to repatriate the powers, and insisted that agreement inside the Coalition remained "months" away. "We need co-operation between our criminal justice and police systems," the source said. We are not going to let Euroscepticism put our public in danger. The row came as a series of senior Tories made the case for renegotiating Britain's relationship with the EU. Mr Gove, the Education Secretary, is said to have concluded that it is time the Government issued Brussels with an ultimatum: "Give us back our sovereignty or we will walk out." He indicated that he would vote to leave the EU and forge an independent path, as nations such as Norway and Switzerland have done. Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, suggested that Mr Gove was speaking for a growing number of senior Conservative ministers. He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "The point that Michael Gove is reflecting and that many of us feel is that we are not [satisfied] with the current relationship between the EU and the UK. For the first time in a decade, those of us who are [dissatisfied] with the way that relationship has developed see an opportunity to renegotiate.