You can always rely on the Conservatives to ignore the public when it comes to Europe

Europe is not often the issue which comes top of people’s concerns on the doorstep. Nor do opinion polls suggest that Europe is a priority for voters when compared to issues like the economy or jobs.

But you can always rely on the Conservatives to ignore the public when it comes to Europe.

This week saw over a hundred Conservative MPs rebel and vote against their own Queens Speech. They were angry that it hadn’t included a bill which would put into law an in/out referendum on Britain’s membership of Europe. The size of that rebellion – the largest David Cameron has suffered – shows you just how divisive the issue of Europe still is within the Conservative Party.

David Cameron should know, he recognised during his bid to become Conservative leader that “for too long…we were banging on about Europe.”

And far from being calmed by his speech in January, David Cameron’s backbenchers have taken it as an invitation to further rebellion.

The political pressure within the Tory Party became so great last week that at the last minute the PM said his Ministers would be allowed to abstain on the amendment. The sight of Conservative Ministers abstaining on their own Queens Speech shows just how far David Cameron has now travelled – pushed around by his eurosceptic backbenchers to a point where it’s commonplace that he has lost control of his own party.

But the real argument here isn’t about Parliamentary shenanigans.

David Cameron’s approach to Europe has prompted real fears that he is willing to give in to his own party and sleep walk Britain out of Europe altogether. On the same day as his MP’s rebelled against him, David Cameron was in Washington where he heard Barack Obama make clear his views on Britain’s place in Europe.

The US President said the “UK’s participation in the EU is an expression of its influence and its role in the world, as well as, obviously, a very important economic partnership.”

But it seems Cameron wasn’t listening.

Under pressure, he’s now persuaded one of his eurosceptic backbenchers to table a private members bill on an in/out referendum.

There is already real uncertainty now – particularly amongst the business community – about whether David Cameron will give in to his Party and allow Britain to sleep-walk out of Europe. But whilst the Conservatives continue to bang on about Europe, Labour has said that the Government should get a grip on Britain’s faltering economy.

Ed Miliband’s alternative Queens Speech wasn’t about Europe: it was about jobs, the economy, housing, immigration, and banking reform. And Labour’s amendment to the Queens Speech called for a laser-like focus on jobs and growth, not a bill to sleep-walk Britain out of Europe.

We don’t support committing now to an in/out referendum in 2017 and so we didn’t support the Conservative rebels this week, and we don’t support this new backbench bill.

Voters expect politicians to make decisions about Britain’s membership of the EU on the basis of our national interest, not on what’s best for the Conservative Party. Yet sadly this latest step seems to have more to do with David Cameron trying to get his Party back in line rather than getting the economy back on track.

Douglas Alexander is the Shadow Foreign Secretary