So much for David Cameron’s new entente cordiale with the north of England. Tyke Tory MPs turned out in force to humiliate him on Malice Monday at Westminster when more than half the Government’s back-benchers joined the anti-Europe rebellion.
Support for the revolt from his long-time right-wing rival David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) was only to be expected, as was the backing of Philip Davies (Shipley), a confirmed Euro-loather. But the Prime Minister must have been dismayed that so many of the new boys from West Yorkshire marched into the “Yes” lobby. Only one – former soldier Kris Hopkins (Keighley and Ilkley) – voted with the three-line whip to oppose a referendum on membership of the European Union. Stewart Andrew (Pudsey), Justin McCartney (Colne Valley), Simon Reevell (Dewsbury) and Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley), who all took their seats from Labour in 2010, voted with the rebels. They were joined from North and East Yorkshire by Julian Sturdy (York Outer) and Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole). I thought there was another numpty, a Mr Drax, but this was simply confusion over names. Drax is a monster power station in Yorkshire, but Richard Drax is a Tory MP for somewhere down Tolpuddle way.
What’s happening? Conservative Party bosses poured hundreds of thousands of pounds into the electoral effort up ’ere last year. To a degree, it paid off, ousting junior minister Shahid Malik in Dewsbury and snatching seats in West Yorkshire where the Labour member was retiring. No amount of money could buy them a constituency in South Yorkshire, but in North Yorkshire they also took redrawn Selby and Ainsty, whose MP Nigel Adams voted loyally in the “No” lobby. As did novices Andrew Jones of Harrogate and Julian Smith, owner of the Skipton and Ripon political franchise. Smith, already a parliamentary private secretary, obviously has a ministerial career ahead of him that he will not jeopardise by pointless misbehaviour.
The West Yorkshire rebellion is serious. It has a whiff of Tyke machismo about it that goes beyond the issue of Europe. I can see these boys (and they are political ingénues) from the Pennine valleys causing a lot of trouble for Cameron. They belong to the “Stroppy Tendency”, irritated beyond measure at the necessity of sharing power with the wishy-washy Liberal Democrats and blaming their Old Etonian leader for this fine political mess.
Simon Reevell said in the debate: “It’s something people feel they’re not being allowed a say on. The argument that this is the wrong time because the European economy is struggling – well, next it will be the wrong time because it’s only just recovering, then it will be the wrong time because it’s starting to do quite well. There’s never going to be a perfect time. It needs sorting out.”
Got that? No, me neither. But it’s what he said, according to local report. You get his drift: We don’t quite know what we want, but we certainly don’t want this. It’s a view reminiscent of Groucho Marx’s inimitable anthem “Whatever it is, I’m against it.” So, not an easy demand to meet. I get the feeling that these hard-hat Tories would sooner wreck the coalition and go to the country with a full-blooded right-wing agenda rather than faff about placating Nick Clegg’s people.
Keighley’s Hopkins, who shows signs of more political nous than his fellow Tykes, warned of “self-destruction” if the party does not heal its rifts. Comparing events with the way the Tories “ripped themselves apart” over Europe in the 1990’s, he said: “After 13 years in opposition, I am dismayed that, after just 18 months in government, we are sitting here again with the same tensions. There is an element of self-indulgence here and, if we are not careful, it will be a route to self-destruction.”
We can all say “Amen” to that, but Labour had its own rebels against the party line. Veteran anti-European Austin Mitchell (Grimsby) and Mike Wood (Batley) both defied Ed Miliband’s three-line whip to vote against the referendum ploy. However, their mini-revolt pales into insignificance alongside the Tories’ troubles. Labour MPs across the region closed ranks behind their leader. This is not an issue that will split the party up ’ere. For the Tories, problems are not only internal. They’re coming under fire from an unexpected quarter in the region – business. The ink was scarcely dry on Hansard’s record of his vote before Julian Sturdy came under fire in the press from the head of a local internet marketing company, Andy Atkins-Krueger. An exporter to the United States, he claimed that confusion and uncertainty sowed by Eurosceptic MPs had put 50 jobs at risk. Sturdy’s timing was “lousy”, he argued.
In fact, there was no timing. In their haste to discharge anti-EU bile, they fell over themselves to seize the parliamentary opportunity offered by the coalition-inspired citizens’ petition. They rallied round the flagpole and now find themselves hoist by their own petard. All very satisfactory.
By my calculation, this is my 156th column for Tribune over the past seven years. I want to say a heartfelt “thanks” to editor Chris McLaughlin and his team who give me this opportunity to talk to sympathetic listeners, and wish them the best for the future. The ideas and values that Tribune has championed for 75 years will not die. They are as relevant today as they were in the dark days of the 1930s, which are uncannily with us again. l
