The euro sparks a Cabinet row

Word reaches me of a vigorous exchange of views in Cabinet this week between Chris Huhne and Michael Gove over the European question. Huhne, who has form when it comes to Cabinet scraps, launched into a polemic against Tory Eurosceptics and insisted that the coalition not be “wagged by the Eurospecptic tail”.

It has, obviously, escaped Huhne’s notice that there are more Tory Euro-rebels than there are Lib Dem MPs.

There then followed an even more incredible moment where Huhne implied that if he had been in power, the single currency would have worked and so it was unfair to suggest that he had been proved wrong.

This was all too much for Michael Gove, who – to the irritation of some at Number 10 and several of his ministerial colleagues – tends to weigh into every Cabinet discussion. He argued that the Euro-sceptics had been “proved right” in their warnings, that Huhne had been proved wrong and that the government had to listen to Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers.