Labour attack the Tories for banging on about Europe

Members of the Shadow Cabinet have attacked the Conservatives for, to use David Cameron's phrase "banging on about Europe" after rebel backbenchers published an amendment to the Queen's speech which expresses "regret" that there was no referendum bill in the speech. Following reports from last night that David Cameron is planning on publishing a referendum bill which will be from the Conservative party and not the Coalition. It is also understood that the Liberal Democrats will block the Conservatives using Government Time for the Bill so it'll have to enter as a Private Members Bill (PMB) which can simply be talked out of time. As many Conservatives who will be supporting this Bill have done with other PMBs.

Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, responding to David Cameron's announcement to publish a bill for an EU vote, said: "This seems to be just the latest panicked response from the Prime Minister who is now following, rather than leading his backbenchers. David Cameron is a Prime Minister who has both lost control of the agenda and lost control of his Party. Labour have said that we don't think committing now to an in/out referendum up to four years from now is in the national interest because the priority must be getting growth into the economy not getting Britain out of Europe. This latest step has more to do with trying to get his Party back in line rather than getting the economy back on track."

The Shadow Defence Secretary, Jim Murphy, criticised the Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond after he told the BBC's Sunday Politics that he would vote to leave the EU. Mr Murphy said: "Rather than posturing to the Conservative Party over Europe, the Defence Secretary should get to grips with defence procurement. This is the second damaging report which has proven the Defence Secretary's claims to have balanced the budget to be totally false. There are unanswered questions and unfinished business in defence procurement reform, but unfortunately the Defence Secretary is wasting time and money."

Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, used Conservative opposition to the European Arrest Warrant to attack the Tories, saying: "This is the real consequence of the Conservative party’s frenzy and infighting over Europe. They say they want to export foreign criminals yet they want to ditch the European Arrest Warrant which allowed us to swiftly deport 900 foreign citizens suspected of crimes in their own country. They say they want the police to catch criminals. Yet they want to ditch the European Arrest Warrant that has allowed us to catch terrorists, kidnappers and serious criminals who fled abroad and bring them back to face justice. And they want to pull out of the European Arrest Warrant at the very same time that they are using it to bring one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives back to serve punishment for his crime."

Moving onto the Andrew Moran case, the British fugitive arrested in Spain this weekend, Ms Cooper said: "This weekend Spanish police tracked down and arrested Andrew Moran – the Salford man who has been on the run for four years after a £25,000 armed robbery involving guns and a machete. He was found sunbathing in a villa in Alicante Yesterday he was remanded in custody, and the British government is now pursuing his rapid return here. Yet he was arrested under the very warrant the Government wants to rip up. This week they want him deported under the very warrant they say should be abandoned."