Cameron reassures Tories as donor considers Ukip
David Cameron today sought to reassure voters that “I am a Conservative”, as one of his party’s biggest donors said he might join the UK Independence Party (Ukip).
The Tory leader rejected claims he was copying Tony Blair, saying he was merely learning from the prime minister’s mistakes and was building up the Tories on the traditional values of the rule of law, personal responsibility and national sovereignty.
In an article for The Daily Telegraph, Mr Cameron also sought to reassure the Eurosceptic wing of his party of his commitment to resist moves towards a federal European Union and instead promote a “positive vision of an outward-looking Europe”.
His comments come after two former Tory peers defected to Ukip last week, citing Mr Cameron’s failure to take a tougher stance on Europe, and as Stuart Wheeler, one of the party’s biggest donors, this morning admitted he was thinking about joining them.
“I think Cameron’s done a tremendous thing for the Conservative party and I would very much rather the Conservatives form the next government, as I think they will, than Labour,” the tycoon, who gave £5 million to the Tories in 2001, told Today.
“Plainly Ukip’s not going to. And one side of me says I don’t want to do anything to upset that.
“On the other hand, I think the Conservatives have not been nearly strong enough on Europe, which in many respects does a great deal of harm to this country, [although] it has its benefits too.
“I think it’s terribly important that the Conservatives should announce they are going to be very, very much tougher with the European Union.”
Mr Cameron has promised to restore Britain’s opt-out from the European Social Chapter and said his decision to withdraw Tory MEPs from the federalist European People’s Party in the European parliament was proof of his commitment to changing the status quo.
“Our new Movement for European Reform is a pan-European campaign to promote a positive vision of an outward-looking Europe rather than an inward-looking EU obsessed with its own bureaucracy,” he wrote in today’s article.
“We will continue to oppose an EU constitution that is about transferring power away from nation states and we will keep the pound as our currency.”
He added: “Those who ask whether I am a Conservative need to know that the foundation stones of the alternative government that we’re building are the ideas that should unite us all – the ideas that encouraged me as a young man to join the Conservative party and work for Margaret Thatcher.”
However, it remains to be seen whether his comments will have an effect on the Eurosceptics in his party. Another peer, Dixons founder Lord Kalms, has said he has considered joining Lords Pearson and Willoughby de Broke in defecting to Ukip.
“This issue is way above party loyalty. We will not be bound hand and foot to the Conservative party over Europe,” Lord Kalms told the Telegraph.
“This issue is one on which the whole future of the United Kingdom depends. The option remains open for me, and Tories that I know, to vote Ukip.”
