Clarke warns of Tory fracture
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.THE Conservative Party could "break up" or "fracture" over Europe if the leadership insisted on outright opposition to the European single currency, Kenneth Clarke warned yesterday.
The former Chancellor of the Exchequer told a packed Commons meeting of the Positive Europe Group - chaired by Michael Heseltine, former Deputy Prime Minister - that he found it hard to explain how a pro-European government had become a Eurosceptic opposition following the party's "collective nervous breakdown" over the past three or four years.
He effectively warned William Hague that if the leadership hardened its opposition to the single currency, as widely expected, party unity could be seriously damaged.
"There is no sensible reason why arguments about the form of words we should use in 1998 to describe our future intentions on Britain's possible entry into EMU [economic and monetary union] should now shatter 50 years of reasonable Conservative unity on the subject of Britain in Europe," Mr Clarke said. If Mr Hague forced the issue, he would be "running the risk of fracturing the party", and the party could "break up" over that form of words.
As for Mr Hague's plans to put such the issue to a vote of party members, Mr Clarke said: "There is no point in having a ballot of all members of the party on EMU when the party can happily hold together those who agree with various propositions. Creating winners and losers will not forge unity.
"A ballot could be highly divisive and any formula agreed might seem quite out of date in a very short time. By the time of the general election, we could have boxed ourselves into an unsustainable position.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments