David Cameron’s EU renegotiations appear to be underwhelming his own MPs

David Cameron has just delivered a statement to the House of Commons on last week’s European Council meeting. Cameron stressed that any visa liberalisation programme for Turkey would not apply to Britain as this country is not part of Schengen. He also reiterated his condemnation of President Assad and accused the Russians of predominantly striking other rebels groups in Syria not Isil; he said that only 20 per cent of Russian strikes in Syria had been directed against Isil.

But the most politically significant part of the statement came when Cameron again set out his renegotiation demands. Tellingly, as Cameron outlined his four main aims — an opt-out from ever closer Union, a more competitive EU, single market protections and an end to abuses of free movement — there was very little noise from the Tory benches. At the moment, Cameron’s renegotiations seems to be rather underwhelming his own MPs. Indeed, in response to Jeremy Corbyn, all Cameron would say was that he didn’t want free movement to extend to criminals and ‘benefit shoppers’.