LONDON - Prime Minister David Cameron faced the biggest rebellion of his premiership on Monday with dozens of his own party members in parliament set to back calls for a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union. The debate reignites a long-simmering row over Europe which tore apart the Conservatives in the 1990s and which Cameron had been desperate to defuse since he became party leader six years ago. Although the vote in parliament looks set to fail and carries no legal weight, it is seen as a test of the Conservative leader's authority and risks raising tensions within his pro-Europe Liberal Democrat coalition partners. It comes a day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Cameron at an EU summit he was "sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do", according to diplomats widely quoted in the British media. Foreign Secretary William Hague, himself a Conservative "eurosceptic", said the referendum proposal was "completely against the policy of the government". "It would create additional economic uncertainty in this country at a difficult economic time," he told the BBC. Some 78 members of parliament, many of them Conservatives, have put their names to a parliamentary motion calling for a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU or renegotiate the terms of its membership. Parliament debates the issue later on Monday with a vote due shortly before 2100 GMT. Cameron has ordered Conservatives to vote against the motion but the party is dominated by eurosceptics, who believe Britain's sovereignty has been eroded by repeated transfers of power to Brussels. They see the debt crisis afflicting the euro zone as an opportunity to wrest back powers or even to leave the EU altogether. "We have been criticising the EU for years, we ... have watched the EU go down the pan for years. What have we done to renegotiate our position in Europe? The answer is nothing," rebel Conservative MP Richard Drax told Sky News. Supporters of EU membership say Britain does 40 percent of its trade with the euro zone and that leaving the EU could damage the economy and foreign investment. With the support of his junior coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats, and the main opposition Labour Party, Cameron is virtually assured of defeating the rebels. However, a bigger than expected revolt would raise questions about his authority. The euro zone crisis has created a dilemma for Cameron's government. It doesn't want to stump up much money for a euro zone bailout but fears the euro zone could exclude it from decisions on things that matter to Britain, particularly the financial services industry, where London dominates. Sarkozy's remarks at Sunday's summit highlighted French frustration at Britain's attitude. Cameron is eager to regain the initiative after the resignation earlier this month of his former defence minister Liam Fox in a row over his links with a businessman. The government has also come under fire over its plans to restore economic growth after a year of stagnation. Despite the largely symbolic nature of the EU vote, Cameron's demand that party members reject the referendum motion forces them to decide whether to rebel against the government. Ironically, the EU referendum issue has been thrust onto the agenda by one of Cameron's own innovations, under which petitions on a government website that receive broad public backing may be debated in parliament. A poll for the Mail on Sunday newspaper found 61 percent of Britons want an EU referendum, while half wanted the government to renegotiate the terms of Britain's membership to focus on trade. However, only 34 percent wanted to leave the EU, compared to 44 who wanted to stay and 22 percent who did not know.
