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As British MPs gathered in the Commons to listen to the PM David Cameron’s statement on his historic vetoing of a new EU-wide treaty on fiscal union, there was one notable absentee: junior coalition partner and deputy PM Nick Clegg.
Clegg, who initially appeared to back the PM’s summit veto, only to later declare he was “bitterly disappointed” and feared that Britain would become a “pygmy in the world”, justified his no-show by saying “I would have been a distraction if I was there."
For The Independent, traditionally close to the deputy PM’s Liberal Democrat party, this was “Clegg’s day of rage”. The prime minister and his deputy, the London daily writes -
… are at odds over whether the Government should move quickly to rebuild bridges with the 26 other European Union countries after Britain was left isolated at last week's Brussels summit.
[…] Both Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers admit the Coalition faces the biggest crisis since it was formed last year.
For EU-sceptic the Daily Mail, Clegg’s “histrionics” are nothing short of “cowardly” –
Nobody expected Mr Clegg or the obsessively Europhile Lib Dems to be thrilled by Mr Cameron walking away from the Franco-German led talks in order to protect the City and other vital national interests... [But] the brutal reality is that … Mr Clegg exposed himself as a weak man.
The Mail also scoffs at the notion that the spat could lead to a Lib-Dem walk-out that could topple the coalition.
The polls point to annihilation if they walk away now and, besides, they like their ministerial cars too much.
