Tories harden up anti-Europe stance as fear of Ukip by-election win grows

Tories harden up anti-Europe stance as fear of Ukip by-election win grows

• UK could withdraw from European arrest warrant
• PM to push for change to rules on EU migration

• The Guardian, Thursday 16 October 2014 20.53 BST

David Cameron in Rochester, where a second by-election victory for Ukip could lead to a withdrawal from the European arrest warrant. Photograph: Getty Images

The Tories’ European policy was thrown into doubt last night after Conservative MPs hinted the government might delay a vote on whether to opt back into the European arrest warrant until after the Rochester and Strood by-election.

As David Cameron sought to win back ex-Tory voters who have flocked to Ukip, by describing his planned EU negotiations as “one last go”, Conservative MPs said they had been given the impression in private by the chief whip, Michael Gove, that a second Ukip victory next month could lead to a withdrawal from the European arrest warrant.

One highly Eurosceptic minister told the Guardian: “The status quo on the EU is not acceptable. The existing arrangements are not tolerable which means we have to have radically different ones. We have an extremely good chief whip who is sound in every way.”

The signals from Gove, who has been consulting Tory MPs amid signs that the government will face a major rebellion against the European arrest warrant, came as government sources confirmed that the prime minister is planning to propose a change to the EU’s founding principle on the free movement of people.

Cameron is expected to make clear in a speech by the end of the year that he has hardened his position and has decided that restrictions will have to be imposed on citizens from current EU member states. The prime minister had said that such restrictions would only be imposed on future member states.

All Tory MPs have been invited to a breakfast meeting at No 10 tomorrow which is to be attended by Gove. The prime minister will not be present for the breakfast which is being held ahead of the second reading of Bob Neill’s private member’s bill that would introduce an EU referendum by 2017.

The hardening of the Tory position on Europe came amid fears at the highest levels of the party that the prime minister could be heading for a second successive by-election defeat at the hands of Ukip in next month’s by-election in Rochester and Strood that was triggered by the defection of Mark Reckless.

Cameron sought to show he understood the concerns of former Tory voters who are moving to Ukip by saying he would give the EU one last chance to reform in yet another hint he could be prepared to lead Britain to the exit door in the next parliament.

Despite anything that David Cameron tries to keep Britain in the EU they will leave.  The fact is Britain will leave the European Union according to Bible Prophecy. The Bible has long said (2,500 yrs ago to be exact) that Britain will not be a part of the European Union when Russia and the EU invade the Middle East.