Is Downing Street panicking over Europe?

It was yesterday afternoon while we were about to board a flight from Andrews Air Base in Washington that the pack of journalists following the prime minister were suddenly told to gather for a briefing.

?You?re going to want to hear this,? said a senior Tory source.

He was not wrong. The breaking news ? under embargo for 10pm UK time ? was that David Cameron had decided after all to publish draft legislation that would enshrine the 2017 EU referendum in law.

The idea must have seemed a political masterstroke: to nip in the bud the latest uprising of Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers and PPSs (those barely-noticed ministerial bag carriers who occasionally make news by resigning.)

The Cameron team were aware, however, that the story would eclipse the

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Source: http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2013/05/why-did-downing-street-brief-its-eu-u-turn-when-it-did/

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