When does Labour attack the Tories on Europe?

Former Europe Minister and MP for Rotherham Denis MacShane believes Labour must start attacking the Tories for their rabidly negative attitude to our European partners and the EU.

One of the political puzzles of the moment is why journalists are giving the Conservatives such a free ride on their European policy. Never before in British political history has a potential party of government adopted such a hostile public approach to working with allies and partners. If the Tories get back in they will create massive problems for British relations with Europe. The other puzzle is why Labour is not making more capital out of this and mocking and scorning the Conservatives as threatening to damage vital national interests by their anti-European ideology.

Consider the following:

• David Cameron has said he will pull out of the EU social rules which provide for five weeks paid holiday a year plus other rights;
• William Hague works closely with the “Better Off Out” group of Tory MPs who want to quit the EU;
• Cameron has hinted at a referendum on the current Treaty which the Commons and Lords have ratified and the Queen signed into law;
• Cameron has pledged to pull out of the European People's Party which is the confederation of all the centre-right parties in Europe. Given that from Poland to Ireland, from Greece to Sweden, as well as the big three of Germany, France and Italy, the centre-right are in power, it  is folly for any putative UK government to use this kind of language against future potential partners;
• In the Commons and Lords Tory spokespersons always sneer and attack the EU and our continental partners;
• The United States have made clear they support greater EU defence integration and efforts which the UK supports as David Miliband made clear in his important Progress speech last week. Yet Liam Fox and David Cameron continually attack EU defence policy – thus threatening the Euroatlantic alliance between north America (US and Canada) and Europe;
• The Tories have opposed the Lisbon Treaty even though it is a sine qua non for future enlargement in the eyes of the rest of Europe. They are complete hypocrites in supporting enlargement but denying the mechanism to achieve it.

So a Conservative government on Europe would be in a very odd position of seeking to oppose current EU work and policy as well as threatening to pull the UK out of many of the current arrangements agreed by Britain over the years. There are problems with Europe. But the Tories now adopt the Trotskyist line of the worse the better. The more they can weaken and undermine Europe from within the better. In that sense, the closest UKIP Tory MPs who would like Britain out are more honest. The policy of wrecking from within that Cameron supports will weaken Britain's standing in every international arena, should the Tories win power.

It will be the first time that the Conservatives stand for election on an out-and-out anti-EU ticket. When Mrs Thatcher was elected in 1979, she was elected as a pro-European. Even her famous rebate was given to her by Germany and France because she agreed to a massive increase in the overall EU budget and she was supporting the integrative Single European Act as well as the appointment of Jacques Delors as the Commission President with his integration agenda.

By contrast, Cameron and Hague are making endless threatening noises about the UK and Europe in a manner which harks back to old-style Tory isolationism and hostility to partnership and cooperation with foreign countries.

The Tories want the worst of all worlds. They oppose Europe but claim they do not want the UK to leave the EU. In other words, they will provoke fights and conflicts and achieve nothing as once you agree to a Treaty you have to live by its rules.

But if the Tories are dangerous on Europe, Labour is muted. It remains a puzzle as to why No 10 and Labour ministers do not spend more time highlighting this utterly negative aspect of current Tory policy. Under David Cameron, the Conservatives have become more anti-European than ever before. To be sure, Europe is  not and never has been an object of passion for voters. But so far, they have not supported a party that is as out-and-out hostile to Europe as today's Conservatives. Labour should be attacking Tory isolationism and explaining why a Cameron government would do serious damage to British interests beyond our shores.