Nick Clegg and George Osborne pull coalition further apart over EU budget
metrowebukmetroThursday 1 Nov 2012 10:28 am
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has said Conservative rebels seeking a real-terms cut in the European Union budget have 'absolutely no hope' of succeeding, as chancellor George Osborne pledged the government would veto any deal unfavourable for British taxpayers.
George Osborne and Nick Clegg have given seemingly mixed messages on the EU budget (Picture: AFP/Getty)
The coalition government suffered its first significant setback in the Commons last night when Labour backed a rebel amendment to inflict a 307-294 defeat.
Fifty-three MPs defied Tory whips to support an amendment demanding ministers seek a real-terms cut in the next EU budget for 2014-2020, which is being negotiated next month.
While the vote is non-binding it is embarrassing for prime minister David Cameron, with commentators making comparisons with divisions over Europe that undid the Conservative Party in the 1990s.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the vote was a 'humiliating defeat' for the government, but Mr Clegg slammed Labour as 'dishonest' and 'hypocritical'.
In a speech at Chatham House in central London, Mr Clegg said as the majority of the 27 EU member states were net recipients from the budget, it was 'completely unrealistic' to achieve a real-terms cut.
He explained the government's position was to lobby for a real-terms freeze that would see the budget rising with inflation, and that Labour's position would see a return of costlier one-year budgets.
'We've been waiting for years for the Labour Party to finally announce how they would cut spending,' the Liberal Democrat leader said.
'Now they have finally come out in favour of cuts but in a way they know is undeliverable; and in a way that would hurt British taxpayers. And it turns out even their cuts cost money.
'I've heard people describe it as clever opposition politics – and I suppose it is. But it's not the behaviour of a party serious about government.'
The seven-year European Union budget negotations begin next month (Picture: Getty)
Appearing on the Today programme, Mr Osborne would not comment on whether a real-terms cut was possible.
On Mr Clegg's warning to Tory rebels and Labour, the chancellor said: 'What we have got to do is come to a position that is agreed by the other countries and that the House of Commons accepts.
'That's the circle we've got to square.'
Mr Osborne claimed the coalition government was in a 'tougher position' than any administration before it.
'We will veto any deal that is not good for the British taxpayer. We will only put to the House of Commons a deal that is good for the British taxpayer,' he continued.
'That is our position. It is the beginning of a negotiation, let's see where that negotiation leads. But no one should doubt David Cameron's determination, my determination, to deliver a deal that is good for the taxpayer and puts an end to outrageous increases in European spending.'
Mr Balls meanwhile denied Labour's change of policy was 'party politics'.
'It is about the national interest. Parliament has spoken and David Cameron has got to listen and deliver,' he said.
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