Tory MP James Wharton’s EU Referendum Bill slammed as “cynical, pointless stunt” – by his own councillor

Tory MP James Wharton has been enjoying his 15 minutes of fame recently, as he prepares to put forward his Private Member’s Bill calling for an EU Referendum on July 5th. His bill will be supported by the Tory leadership (who did so in a desperate bid to avoid losing a vote on their own Queen’s Speech) – but not everyone is impressed.

One of his local councillors has attacked the bill on Facebook as:

“a transparently cynical attempt to combat the rise of UKIP and to try to appease Tory backbenchers. A cynical, pointless stunt, nothing more….”

Here’s the quote in full:

Wharton attempted to claim that Chatburn didn’t really mean this at all, going as far as attacking his own councillor as “a well known local eccentric” – not exactly a ringing endorsement for Stockton Tories. But Chatburn was not to be dissuaded, later telling the The Northern Echo:

“There are more pressing issues than Europe, which is not high on anyone’s list of priorities.”

That doesn’t sound very eccentric to me…