Two issues are dominating Number 10’s thinking at the moment: Europe and the cost of living. How to deal with Europe is the biggest strategic challenge facing David Cameron. Cameron has to work out how to use this moment to advance the British national interest. But he also knows that Europe is an issue that could split the coalition and the Tory party.
Inside Number 10, it seems that it is becoming a question of when to announce a referendum not whether to call one. As I say in the Mail on Sunday today, senior figures there are pushing for the Tory commitment to a future referendum on the EU to be brought forward from the manifesto to this year’s conference season.
Those pushing this option, who are not the usual suspects, argue that Cameron should say that the European Union is going to change over the next few years and that he’ll fight Britain’s corner all the way.
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