THE ATTITUDE of the Conservative Party to the EU, with its demands to reclaim some powers from Brussels, is “defeatist and isolationist”, according to British foreign secretary David Miliband.
“The argument is simple. It is that Europe is a good litmus test for whether a party is in tune with the modern world and able to stand up for Britain’s interests,” he said during a speech in Gloucester.
“In the Labour Party, we resolved our bout of Europhobia in the 1980s. We took on the disease, rooted it out, and became a strong, modern party as a result.”
The Conservatives “are isolated and therefore weak in Europe”, Mr Miliband said.
“Their party is unreformed on Europe – 72 per cent of candidates want a fundamental renegotiation or withdrawal ‘as a priority’. There is now a Conservative central office clampdown on their candidates, banning them from publicly declaring their real politics on Europe,” he said.
“Their leadership is afraid of their membership. And since they have failed to change themselves they have little hope of changing the country. So this debate about Europe is about Britain’s power in the world, and whether the Conservative claims to have changed carry weight.”
The biggest international issues – climate change, cross-border crime, immigration – could not be dealt with by countries on their own. “The Conservative way of looking at Europe is not just defensive. It is defeatist, isolationist, declinist.
“It led the last Conservative government to fight a beef war with Europe, and lose it, and to abdicate leadership when it came to the slaughter of tens of thousands of people, and hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in the Balkans. It was born not from pride in Britain but lack of faith in Britain. Lack of faith in our ability to lead, persuade, build alliances.”
On the passing of the Lisbon Treaty, Mr Miliband said: “We now have a framework in place to make the EU a leader rather than a collective of spectators in a G2 world shaped by the US and China – if we get our act together.”
On Conservative leader David Cameron’s decision to pull his MEPs out of the European People’s Party, Mr Miliband said the Conservatives subsequently allied themselves with fringe groupings that have been accused of being anti-Semitic and homophobic, “never mind climate-change denial”. He also said this had caused a fissure in Mr Cameron’s relations with German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
“Europe is not becoming a superstate but it can become more effective, and British engagement can help make it happen,” said Mr Miliband.
“But there’s a political elephant in the room. It’s blue, it doesn’t really like the EU and it’s out for your vote. The Conservative Party’s approach to Europe is the opposite of the one Labour have taken. It’s dangerous, completely wrong-headed and would damage the British interest.”
