David Cameron under attack from Tory activists for plan to sideline grassroots over Europe

Local Conservative chiefs branded the Prime Minister "arrogant" and "disrespectful" for telling MPs not to consider them when choosing how to vote

 

 

Furious Tory activists launched an angry attack on David Cameron today after he urged his MPs to sideline the party grassroots over Europe.
The under-fire Prime Minister was branded “arrogant” and “disrespectful” for telling MPs not to choose how to vote in the In/Out referendum based on “what your constituency association might say”.
The warning triggered uproar among loyal members with dozens penning a letter to the Sunday Telegraph.

Signed by 44 chairmen, executives, former chairmen and Tory activists representing 43 local party associations across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, it warns him: “No prime minister has a divine right to rule.”
Mr Cameron is bidding to strike a new deal between Britain and Brussels at next week’s crunch summit.

Reuters

Arrogant: 44 local activists and chiefs wrote to the Prime Minister

He hopes to win backing for his EU reforms from the union's 27 other leaders before triggering the referendum in June.
In a surprise boost to the PM, one of Margaret Thatcher ’s closest advisers suggested she would have supported his proposed deal.
Lord Powell of Bayswater, Mrs Thatcher’s former private secretary and foreign affairs adviser, used a Sunday Times article to say that although the so-called Iron Lady might have “raged more mightily” at Brussels than Mr Cameron “she would have gone along with what is on offer - indeed negotiated something similar herself”.
Reports today suggested Employment Minister Priti Patel is poised to back a Brexit , while it was claimed Mr Cameron personally appealed to Justice Secretary Michael Gove not to join the Out campaign.

Reuters

Douglas Carswell (Right) urged top Tories to come out for Brexit

UKIP MP Douglas Carswell urged Mr Gove and London Mayor Boris Johnson to campaign to leave, saying he would “welcome absolutely anyone” including “ David Cameron himself”.
Mr Carswell told BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “We need them all, we want them all.”
Former Respect MP George Galloway revealed he will vote to leave quit, because the EU is “built on neo-liberal economic principles which are ironclad and unchangeable no matter how people want to vote”.