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Britain joined the European Union grousing about the blocs budget and threatens to go out the same way, after Prime Minister David Cameron got himself into another Brussels bustup.

Cameron upstaged a European summit as he objected to a 2.1 billion-euro ($2.7 billion) addition to Britains bill due on Dec. 1 -- carrying on a tradition of British petulance about European spending that peaked with Margaret Thatcher demanding, and getting, her money back in the 1980s.

This time, more is at stake than pounds and pence: the unexpected invoice from EU headquarters gives ammunition to an anti-EU movement that wants to destroy Camerons premiership and take Britain out of the bloc, not necessarily in that order.

When youre presented with a bill like this with a month to go, is that helpful for Britains membership of the European Union? Cameron said at the close of a summit of the blocs 28 leaders, thumping the lectern. No it certainly is not.

EU budget fights crop up every seven years, when the bloc sets its long-term revenue-raising and spending plans, and then fade from public view. On the last occasion, in early 2013, Cameron celebrated his role in pushing through the first outright spending reductions in European history.

The off-year budget skirmish catches Cameron at a vulnerable time, in the runup to a U.K. general election next May. The U.K. Independence Party, which wants to hustle Britain out of the EU, threatens to gain momentum in a special election for a parliamentary seat for a district southeast of London next month at his Conservative Partys expense.

Everything seems to be going against him, Wyn Grant, professor of politics at Warwick University, said by phone. The EU effort will result in reinforcing euro-skeptic sentiment in Britain. Its a bit of a gift for UKIP.

Cameron left Brussels to throw himself into the campaign, in the district of in Rochester & Strood. Mark Reckless, who quit the Conservatives to join UKIP, will seek in the Nov. 20 vote to become the second member of the anti-establishment party to take a seat in the House of Commons.

A UKIP victory could lead to more defections from Camerons party, crippling his European strategy and destabilizing his government. To damp anti-EU voices and keep the Conservatives from splintering, Cameron has staked his re-election on a promise to hold a U.K. referendum on leaving the EU by 2017.

A potential defeat for Camerons party in Rochester would place an enormous amount of pressure on him to pull some policy nugget out of the hat, Tim Bale, author of The Conservative Party: From Thatcher To Cameron, said in an interview. Its difficult to know what that will be, because the lesson of the last few weeks is that theres no magic policy bullet to answer the UKIP question.

Originally posted here:
Cameron Budget Blues Raise EU-Exit Specter as UKIP Cheer