'Incompetent' David Cameron faces clear defeat over Juncker
Leaked tape of two Polish politicians discussing his strategy shows just how isolated Cameron is

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Responding to the leak of a taped conversation in which the Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski accuses David Cameron of having "f***ed up" his negotiations for reform of the EU, Britain's Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted this morning that Cameron is "isolated" in Europe.
Hunt sought to make a virtue of that, telling Radio 4's Today listeners: "I want a Prime Minister who fights for Britain… Sometimes leadership is lonely but if it is the right thing to do for Britain, I am glad we have got a strong Prime Minister prepared to take those steps – even if it means he is isolated from time to time."
"Isolated" is putting it mildly. BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Cameron could be in a 27-1 minority on Friday in his effort to force a vote at the EU Council of Ministers to stop the federalist Jean-Claude Juncker being appointed president of the European Commission. The best Cameron can hope for is that Hungary might support him.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"A few weeks ago David Cameron insisted he was winning allies, that many people agreed with him on the need to block Jean- Claude Juncker," said Robinson, "but it is clear now he may now have no allies at all.
"What this tape of a private conversation between the Polish foreign minister and one of his colleagues reveals is just how much contempt there is in Europe for Mr Cameron’s negotiating position."
In the tape, Sikorski – an avowed Thatcherite and well-connected Anglophile, who was in the Bullingdon Club at Oxford at the same time as Boris Johnson and send his sons to Eton - said Cameron had shown “incompetence” in his negotiations with EU partners and accused him of "stupidly" pandering to the eurosceptics on the Tory backbenches.
"He is not interested, he does not get it, he believes in the stupid propaganda, he stupidly tries to play the system... his whole strategy of feeding [his critics] scraps in order to satisfy them is just as I predicted, turning against him.
"He should have said, f*** off, tried to convince people and isolate [the sceptics]. But he ceded the field to those that are now embarrassing him…"
Sikorski was in conversation with another senior Polish politician, former finance minister Jacek Rostowski, who is taped saying: "For the Polish government to agree [to Britain's demands to block Juncker's appointment], someone will have to give us some mountain of gold.
"The Brits won’t give it to us, and the Germans, in order to keep the Brits on board, won’t give it to us either in all likelihood."So the answer will be: f*** off."
Eurosceptic Bernard Jenkin could barely conceal his glee at the prospect of Cameron being forced to accept he has no power to reform the EU from within. Jenkin told the Today programme: "Juncker is the tip of a very large federalist iceberg."
Illustrating just how keen some Tory MPs are for Britain to pull out of Europe, one Eurosceptic tweeted this week: "God let it be Juncker".Cameron is committed to reforming the EU’s freedom of movement rules to stop people from poorer east European countries having the automatic right to come Britain.
The attitude of Rostowski and Sikorski shows just what little chance Cameron of securing an EU agreement for his flagship reform - which leaves his European policy in tatters and the Tories edging ever closer to supporting Britain’s exit from the EU.
There could be one benefit for Cameron in this looming disaster – he could get the support of Ukip at the next election.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Drug could allow you to 'grow new teeth'
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
Woman reunited with egg she signed in 1951
It Wasn't All Bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published
-
10 things you need to know today: September 16, 2023
Daily Briefing Ripple effects seen throughout auto industry as UAW strikes, Lee expected to bring flooding and storm winds to New England, and more
By Justin Klawans Published
-
American rescued after 12 days in Turkish cave
It wasn't all bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published
-
What Mexico’s first female president might mean for the ‘femicide nation’
feature The Latin American country is grappling with misogynist crime amid a backdrop of progress for women in politics
By Rebekah Evans Published
-
Ukrainian military has ‘shown how the Russian army can be beaten’
Talking Point Recent Ukrainian frontline advances may offer hope for its counter-offensive
By The Week Staff Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Protests in Syria: could they bring down the Assad regime?
Talking Point Threat to power grows amid poverty, inflation and ‘botched’ response to earthquake
By The Week Staff Published