The Tory rebels are circling around Dave this morning. Today’s battleground is Europe, something “cast-iron” Cameron could do without going to war with his party over, let alone with those other coalition partners, the LibDems. The Europe Bill allegedly seeks to close the “wriggle room” that ministers would have in granting referendums over changes to the powers surrendered to the EU. However given the fact it would require the UK to sign up to Treaties, only to subsequently put them to the country, it has left many scratching their head at how it would work.

John Redwood exposes another massive hole though:

“The government says its Bill will reassert or confirm Parliamentary sovereignty, at least with respect to the EU. It will confirm that EU law only applies here because Parliament enacted the 1972 European Communities Act, giving the EU what powers it enjoys.

Some say it is now more complex than that. If, as some say, judges can now change or overturn laws through common law judgements and cases, then judges too can work with EU law and Treaties regardless of the views of Parliament.”

The wider debate has opened up about not only how much control we give the EU, but how much we give our judiciary. Without amendments in place by tonight, the government could be in trouble on this one and rightly so. Many on the right still hope Dave is merely keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. They hope that there is a eurosceptic heart hidden in Downing Street somewhere, so now would be a pretty good time for him to show that…