The Tory campaign on James Wharton’s EU referendum bill has been very slick but very partisan – I examined some of the problems with this last week when eurosceptic Labour MP John Cryer announced he had been put off by the Let Britain Decide campaign and would abstain on the bill. So today campaigners in favour of a vote launched a cross-party campaign called I Support a Referendum. They hope that their emphasis on the referendum itself rather than the party politics will help bring MPs from other parties into the fold where previously they felt excluded.
Wharton was present at the launch, and he insisted that he was keen for MPs from any party to back his legislation. But he also warned colleagues from his party and from the anti-referendum camps in the other parties not to amend the bill to fit their own visions of the perfect EU referendum.
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