David Cameron would be forced into a swift and humiliating retreat on Europe if he wins power, according to one of the elder statesmen from the last Conservative Government.

Lord Heseltine, the former Deputy Prime Minister, predicts that Mr Cameron will have to rejoin the European People’s Party (EPP) soon after the election. He is understood to have warned the party leadership at a private meeting last week that its currently Eurosceptic stance would be deeply damaging to Britain’s foreign policy interests. He suggested that the Conservative leader would inevitably have to “reach an accommodation” with the EPP — even though that would be extremely difficult to achieve without losing face and enraging party activists.

Earlier this year the party fulfilled a pledge made during Mr Cameron’s campaign for the leadership by severing ties with the mainstream, but federalist, EPP in the European Parliament. Instead, he has formed a new alliance with mainly east European rightwingers, who have been repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism and extremism. They include Michal Kaminski, of Poland’s Law and Justice party, and Robert Zile, of the Latvian party For Fatherland and Freedom.

This has alienated important allies in Europe, such as Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and President Sarkozy of France. Berlin and Paris have been dismayed further by Conservative opposition to the Lisbon treaty, as well as signals from Mr Cameron that he would still seek to repatriate powers from existing agreements even if the treaty were ratified before the election.

…more at The Times

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