Was Cameron’s veto in 2011 the beginning of the end for British membership of the EU?

Andrew Grice on the biggest story he’s covered in 37 years as a political journalist

David Cameron cuts an isolated figure at the Brussels summit in 2011 (Rex)

In an ominous sign of what was to come, I had a breakfast time row with David Cameron in Brussels in December 2011. At 2.30am, he had vetoed an EU treaty to salvage the single currency. “It is the beginning of the end for Britain’s membership,” I reported one EU source as saying, prophetically.

I couldn’t see the point of Cameron’s veto. Having covered EU summits since 1987, when Margaret Thatcher was the prime minister, I reckoned the other 27 EU members would find a way to go ahead without the UK. Soon, they did. “How can it be in the national interest for the UK to be so isolated?” I asked the prime minister. He insisted: “I am doing what is right, to safeguard our country’s interests, and the City of London.”

I suspected Cameron was acting in the Tory party’s interest. He had no desire to push through parliament a treaty that would split his party, forcing him to rely on Liberal Democrat and Labour votes.