George Osborne tried to talk David Cameron out of holding the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, a new biography of the prime minister claims.
The chancellor feared an accidental exit from the EU and did not believe the referendum would resolve tensions within the Tory party, creating a “rare schism” between the two men, Sir Anthony Seldon wrote in Cameron at 10.
Sir Anthony claimed that Mr Osborne had argued that a referendum would lose the Tories the coveted economic credibility that had won them the previous election.
“The chancellor’s view is that it is simply not sensible to talk about disengaging from major international institutions in the 21st century – not worth considering it,” he wrote.
“Osborne’s eye is on a further horizon ... his own leadership succession. Business opinion weighs heavily on him, and he is loath to make the Conservative Party appear the riskier proposition to business than Labour.”
Advertisement
In the event, Mr Cameron pledged in 2013 that there would be an in/out referendum, and appointed Mr Osborne his lead negotiator with Europe as the Conservatives sought a new deal with Europe before the poll.
A spokesperson for the chancellor denied Sir Anthony’s claims and said: “This is nonsense. The chancellor believes that the British people should be given the chance to decide whether or not we stay in a reformed EU.
“Alongside the prime minister, he is working to negotiate a package of reforms [of the EU] ... that can be put to the British people in 2017.”
In June, it was announced that the referendum would take place by 2017 at the latest.
The previous month, it was disclosed that Britons will be asked whether they wish to remain a member of the European Union.