Ed Miliband today came under pressure to back a referendum on Britain's EU membership as a way to split the coalition government.
Eurosceptic Labour MPs said the move would be a "game changer" as a poll showed a majority of the party's voters would back it. They argued that there was a growing feeling in the country that Britain should hold a vote on the relationship with Brussels for the first time in 36 years as economic turmoil grips the eurozone.
With similar unrest growing on the Conservative benches while the Liberal Democrats remain committed to the European project, the MPs predicted that Labour support for a referendum would break open the Government.
Former whip Graham Stringer said: "If Ed wants a game changer, and we are not doing as well as we should be doing in the opinion polls, but if he wants to put the Conservatives into disarray, if he wants to change the public perception of him as a leader, then we the Labour Party need to say we want to listen to what the people are saying - we want your views on Europe.
Ed can still argue as passionately as he wants for the case for the European Union, but I think it would be a magnificent move for the Labour Party ... he would be rewarded immediately at the ballot box."
Former minister Kate Hoey, Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins and Labour Euro-Safeguards campaign chairman Austin Mitchell all backed the call at a fringe meeting in Liverpool.
The YouGov survey for the People's Pledge campaign found that 53 per cent of Labour supporters would back holding an "in-out" referendum. Some 76 per cent of Tory voters and 51 per cent of Lib-Dem supporters would also support a vote.
Sources close to Mr Miliband said that a referendum was not a "realistic prospect".
Cautious backing for free schools
Free schools would be allowed to continue under Labour if they do not drive down standards in neighbouring ones.
Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham fears that free schools cause damage by attracting more able pupils. But in an echo of Labour's stance on grammar schools in 1997, he is ready to let free schools, not judged to be causing harm, carry on under a new Labour administration.
He also accused the Government of vilifying thousands of pupils and schools to justify its education reforms. Free schools, which can be set up by parents and other not-for-profit groups, are proving popular in some parts of the country including London. So far 24 are being opened, outside the control of town halls.
