THE TELEGRAPH: David Cameron's policies on Europe have come under fire from a group of Tory grandees, less than a week before the European elections
The Conservative leader, who is currently on a tour of the Czech Republic and Poland, is preparing to remove his MEPs from the European People's Party after Thursday's elections. He is also planning to reopen the Lisbon Treaty debate and stage a referendum on it in Britain if he wins power.
Several retired senior diplomats and two former Tory cabinet ministers have strongly criticised his policies however.
Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, a former head of the Foreign Office who was Britain's ambassador to the EU at the time of the Maastricht treaty negotiations in 1991, told The Guardian: "I do not understand a rigid commitment to impotence.
"I do not understand why (the Czech and Polish parties who will form a new group with the Tories) are preferable to Angela Merkel or Nicolas Sarkozy, or why they think the route to influence lies that way."
Lord Tugendhat and Lord Patten, former Conservative European commissioners, called the move "unwise", while Lord Brittan, another former Commissioner and ex-Home Secretary said: "There is no doubt that the attempt to leave the EPP has annoyed a lot of the European leaders who are members of the EPP and are in government.
"It will make it more difficult to establish relations with them." >>> By Chris Irvine | Saturday, May 30, 2009
