British prime minister David Cameron will defend his decision to veto a new European Union treaty amid criticism from his Liberal Democrat deputy Nick Clegg that the move was “bad for Britain”.
Serious cabinet disagreements have been laid bare with Mr Clegg revealing he was “bitterly disappointed” with the prime minister’s use of the veto in Brussels last week.
In a statement to the Commons this afternoon, Mr Cameron will insist that he could not sign up to treaty change without securing “reasonable” safeguards for British interests that fellow EU leaders refused to provide.
Mr Cameron is due to explain his decision to use his veto at 3.30pm.
But amid undisguised fury from senior Liberal Democrats, the deputy prime minister said Mr Cameron had failed to bring back any new safeguards for the UK economy.
"I'm bitterly disappointed by the outcome of last week's summit, precisely because I think now there is a danger that the UK will be isolated and marginalised within the European Union," he told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show.
“I don’t think that’s good for jobs, in the City or elsewhere, I don’t think it’s good for growth or for families up and down the country.”
Asked what he had told the prime minister in a 4am telephone call on Friday morning, the Lib Dem leader said: “I said this was bad for Britain. I made it clear that it was untenable for me to welcome it.”
Mr Clegg made plain his frustration at the influence on Mr Cameron of eurosceptic Tory MPs, who have been jubilantly praising the prime minister’s “bulldog spirit” in vetoing a new EU treaty at the summit.
“There’s nothing bulldog about Britain hovering somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, not standing tall in Europe, not being taken seriously in Washington.”
The deputy prime minister said if he had been at the summit then “of course things would have been different”.
“What David Cameron clearly needed was to bring something back to show that safeguards were secure, and that didn’t happen,” he added.
His comments fuelled Labour accusations that Mr Cameron was looking after the interests of his backbenchers, who are desperate to see the Government renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU or withdraw altogether.
The prime minister is likely to receive a warm reception from his MPs this afternoon but any display of triumphalism will risk deepening the rift with his Lib Dem coalition partners.
Mr Clegg made clear he would not allow the UK to leave the EU - a goal to which some Tory eurosceptics are now seriously turning their minds.
“Far from retreating further to the margins, which is what some eurosceptics want, we should be re-engaging fully and we are going to have to redouble our efforts in doing so,” he said.
He insisted there was “no case” for a referendum - contrary to renewed Tory demands - and, challenged that Britain could end up outside the EU, Mr Clegg said: “I will fight that tooth and nail.
“A Britain that leaves the EU will be considered irrelevant by Washington and will be a pygmy in the world when I want us to stand tall in the world.”
Liberal Democrat business secretary Vince Cable also expressed concern that Britain had “finished in a bad place” at the EU summit, although he added that the policy was a “collective decision by the coalition”.
However, close ally and Lib Dem backbencher Lord Oakeshott said the business secretary had spoken out against the Government’s negotiating position in the Cabinet last week.
“Vince Cable gave a very serious warning last Monday in the Cabinet against elevating these financial regulation points into a make or break deal,” he said.
“He warned on that. He didn’t get any support but that warning is there.” Asked whether Dr Cable was considering resigning, he said: “I have no idea what Vince is going to do.” Lib Dem peer Baroness Tonge suggested last night that members of her party, including Dr Cable, were reaching the end of their patience with the coalition.
Asked whether the business secretary should resign, she told BBC Radio 5 Live: “He has been unhappy over many things that have happened over the last 18 months two years and if he feels this is the very last straw he should resign.”
She said that if Mr Clegg approved the use of the veto then she would be “very worried as to whether he should stay as leader”.
The backbencher also insisted it was time for relations to change within the coalition.
Tory justice secretary Kenneth Clarke, a pro-European like his Lib Dem Cabinet colleagues, also described the outcome of the summit as “disappointing”.
He said he would be listening carefully to Mr Cameron’s explanation in today’s statement.
“I think it’s a disappointing, very surprising outcome,” Mr Clarke said.
Foreign secretary William Hague insisted Britain was “not marginalised” and suggested Mr Clegg had signed up to the Government’s bargaining position in advance of the summit.
“We are not marginalised, I can assure you of that,” he told Sky News.
“Our agreement is required in the EU to a whole range of other decisions that will be coming up over the next few months.
“We work closely with our partners on foreign policy, on the single market, and so on, and that will continue.”
Asian stock markets rose today as investors cheered the European fiscal pact aimed at fixing the region’s debt crisis and preventing the euro’s collapse.