Cameron remains marooned between what Conservative backbenchers demand and what European leaders will accept

David Cameron might have received a warm welcome as he arrived at Schloss Meseberg with his family, but warm words from Chancellor Merkel won’t help him in his latest attempt to convince his own party that he is charting the right course on Europe.

The problem for Cameron is that he simply cannot bridge the gap between what European leaders like Chancellor Merkel will accept, and what his backbenchers are demanding from him.

As Parliament met this week to debate Margaret Thatcher’s legacy, Conservative MPs compared her legacy on Europe to David Cameron’s approach.

Their sense of frustration was palpable. For one of the domestic political consequences of the global financial crisis was that David Cameron never managed to complete the modernisation of his party – whether he ever had the desire, or intention to, is another question. But a consequence of this failure to modernise, is that he failed to change his party’s approach to Europe. So now his lack of leadership on Europe means the tensions between him and his Eurosceptic backbenchers are never far beneath the surface.

Just last week over 100 restive Tory MPs revealed their dissatisfaction and demanded a legislative guarantee in this Parliament to bind Cameron to an in/out referendum. But his latest attempt to sell his plan for significant treaty change doesn’t only face challenges in Westminster. It has met a notably cool reception in European capitals.

David Cameron’s trip to Germany simply confirms that months after his speech on Europe he remains marooned between what Conservative backbenchers demand and what European leaders will accept. Chancellor Merkel for example has made it clear that she wants Britain to play a leading role in Europe. But both Germany and France have rejected calls from Cameron to take part in his review of our relationship with Europe.

That’s a problem for Britain.

Britain should be at Europe’s heart, not its periphery. Yes leading, but also reforming.

So despite Chancellor Merkel’s desire for the United Kingdom to remain in Europe, David Cameron is now trapped by his own rhetoric and by his own backbenchers. And the risk of his strategy is that Britain sleep-walks towards Europe’s exit door.

Labour has said that at a time when the game changing trade deal between America and Europe is within reach, Britain should be focussed on stability and investment – working now to secure that deal and the jobs it could bring.

The British public want the Government’s priority to be stability and growth, yet Cameron’s approach to Europe does the opposite – creating economic instability and undermining future investment.

The fall-out from the global financial crisis means that Europe continues to be in a state of flux, and Europe must face up to its need for reform.

But it is a false choice for Cameron to suggest that Britain is either out of Europe or beholden to it. The right road for Britain in Europe should be reform not exit.

Douglas Alexander is the Shadow Foreign Secretary