Ken Clarke: We don’t need treaty change to reform Europe, and my eurosceptic colleagues are eccentric

Tory europhiles don’t often come out in the daylight: they normally give the impression they’re frightened that their associations will get grumpy, or that their fellow MPs will try to shout them down. But today the pro-EU group European Mainstream launched their new pamphlet, In Our Interest: Britain with Europe, which takes a stance that is quite unusual in the Conservative party: it agrees with the Prime Minister’s Europe strategy. The 62 MPs on the group – who include Ken Clarke, Damian Green, Richard Benyon and Caroline Spelman – didn’t seem at all shifty or nervous when they gathered in Westminster Hall this afternoon to launch the pamphlet and make a positive case for Britain in Europe.

The European Mainstream bunch like to joke that they’re constantly underestimated as a group, though they represent around a fifth of the party. But from today’s presentation, they’re not so far in their own beliefs from the Fresh Start Project Conservatives, who are similarly optimistic about the prospects for reform in Europe, albeit with a readiness to vote ‘out’ in a referendum.