Britain moves closer to EU referendum law

(LONDON) - Britain moved closer to a referendum on Europe after a eurosceptic lawmaker said on Thursday that he would put forward legislation backed by Prime Minister David Cameron guaranteeing a vote by 2017.

Cameron ordered all Conservative lawmakers to give their full backing to the bill, which was rushed out earlier this week in a bid to satisfy the increasingly rebellious eurosceptic wing of the party.

Conservative MP James Wharton confirmed he would table the centre-right party's EU referendum bill in parliament after he came top of a ballot to see which lawmakers may put forward so-called private members' legislation.

Parliament will now formally debate the draft bill, probably in early July, although under the complex British parliamentary system there is no guarantee that it will reach a vote or become law.

In January Cameron vowed to renegotiate Britain's troubled relationship with the European Union and then hold an in-out referendum by the end of 2017, provided that he wins the next general election in 2015.

But disgruntled Conservative eurosceptics want him to enshrine that promise in law before the election to stop any backtracking, as well as to head off the rise of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP).

"It is about time that this issue was tackled head-on by parliament," Wharton told the BBC.

He admitted the "arithmetic" of getting it to become law was "difficult" as it will likely be opposed by the Liberal Democrats, the pro-EU junior partners in Cameron's coalition government, and by the opposition Labour party.

The bill requires a referendum to be held before December 31, 2017, on the question: "Do you think that the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union?"

Wharton was among the one-third of Conservative lawmakers who voted in favour of a parliamentary motion on Wednesday criticising the government for failing to include the referendum in its plans for the coming year.

Cameron's spokesman said the prime minister would give the bill his "full support."

"The prime minister is very happy that James Wharton has taken up the draft legislation published by the Conservative party on Tuesday and he intends to give it the full support of the Conservative party," the spokesman told reporters.

Labour has accused Cameron of losing control of his party over Europe.

The issue has long been toxic for the Conservatives, leading to the downfall of late prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1990 and weakening her successor John Major.

French President Francois Hollande reacted by saying that he hoped the UK remained in the bloc, but added: "Europe existed before Britain joined."

The Conservatives are having to rely on Wharton alone to put forward the bill -- instead of putting it forward themselves as a government bill -- because their coalition partners the Liberal Democrats would not support it.

The earliest that the bill can be debated in parliament is July 5.

British parliamentary rules allow individual legislators to propose legislation, with a ballot held to decide which lawmakers get to do so. However, private members bills often sputter out because there is not enough time in parliament to allow them to become law.

Cameron survived a vote on Wednesday night on a rebel eurosceptic motion expressing regret that the referendum was not mentioned in last week's Queen's Speech, which sets out the coalition's legislative plans.

But a higher-than-expected number of Tories voted for the motion despite the fact that Cameron had published the draft legislation as they had wished.

Conservative lawmaker John Baron, who proposed that motion, said the new bill was a "second-best option" but admitted that he would back it.

Cameron came into office in 2010 telling the Conservatives that they were alienating voters by "banging on" about Europe.

But since then he has faced three parliamentary rebellions on the issue, and despite angering European partners with his tough stance on eurozone bailout measures and the EU budget, he has failed to placate the eurosceptics.