Cameron tries to defuse rebellion with bill on EU vote

By Andrew Osborn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron will publish a draft bill on Tuesday to prepare for a referendum on Britain's European Union membership, in a political gamble aimed at placating anti-EU lawmakers who are pressing him to take a harder line on Europe.

The Conservative leader's concession comes less than four months after he pledged to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership and then hold an in-out vote before the end of 2017.

Cameron's referendum promise in January failed to satisfy Conservative critics who are now pressing him to bring forward the vote to before the next national election in 2015 or pass a law committing the party to holding a vote by the end of 2017.

"The Conservative Party will (on Tuesday) publish a draft bill to legislate for an in-out referendum by the end of 2017," a senior Conservative source told reporters in Washington after Cameron met U.S. President Barack Obama.

"We will examine all opportunities to bring the bill before parliament, including a private member's bill," the source said.

It will be hard for the Conservatives to push any referendum bill through parliament because it will almost certainly be opposed by their pro-EU coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, as well as the opposition Labour Party.

Up to 100 Eurosceptic Conservative members of parliament are expected to back an amendment this week criticising legislative plans unveiled by the government because they did not include a bill paving the way for a referendum on Britain's EU membership.

Conservative lawmaker John Baron, one of the two figures behind the amendment, said Cameron's promise of a draft bill would not persuade him to back down.

"I am sticking by what I am saying. They know that this option could very well fail," he told Reuters. "A far better approach would be to have the courage to support our amendment on Wednesday."

Cameron came to power in a coalition government three years ago after telling his party in 2006 to "stop banging on about Europe", an issue that has divided the Conservatives for decades and helped bring down two of his predecessors, Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

But Conservatives in parliament have been rattled by the growing popularity of the UK Independence Party, which campaigns for Britain's withdrawal from the EU and tighter immigration laws.

UKIP's poll rating has climbed steadily since Cameron's EU referendum pledge in January, with the party taking a quarter of the vote in local elections earlier this month.

Labour, which has a 10-point lead over the Conservatives, said Cameron had "lost control of the agenda and lost control of his party" at a time when he should be working on reviving Britain's economy.

"This seems to be just the latest panicked response from the prime minister who is now following, rather than leading his backbenchers," Labour foreign affairs spokesman Douglas Alexander said in a statement.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn, Writing by Peter Griffiths, Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/conservatives-publish-draft-bill-eu-vote-205652728.html

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