Eurosceptic cabinet ministers will be “gagged” by David Cameron during the EU referendum campaign in spite of his decision to lift collective responsibility to allow frontbenchers to campaign on either side, the former environment minister Owen Paterson has said.



As the prime minister urged cabinet ministers to act as a “united, harmonious, mutually respectful team” during the referendum, Paterson said pro-EU ministers would enjoy far greater freedoms.

Cameron released a personal minute to all ministers on Monday setting out the ground rules for the campaign period. The new rules would kick in after a cabinet meeting that would be convened once the prime minister secures a deal on reforms at an EU summit.

Cameron said all ministers would be obliged to defend government policy from the frontbench in parliament even if they exercise their right to campaign to leave the EU.



But he said he would apply the rules in a flexible and commonsense way and would not expect ministers campaigning to leave the EU to contradict their position in parliament.

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This would mean that a minister opposed to EU membership would be free to explain their thinking if they were questioned on their position in parliament. But they would then have to say – assuming that the prime minister has successfully negotiated a deal with EU leaders – that the government is committed to campaigning to remain in the EU.

Ministers campaigning to leave would also not be free to set out their thinking on either the front or backbenches during a setpiece debate on the EU. The prime minister is applying in what he regards as a flexible way the rule that all ministers should speak from the frontbench in support of government policy.

Paterson, a leading member of the Vote Leave group, criticised the ground rules. He said: “It’s welcome that ministers who want to campaign to take back control from the EU will be able to do so without resigning, but it’s increasingly clear that it’ll be one rule for those who want to stay in the EU at all costs, and another rule for the rest.

“Ministers who wish to extol the virtues of the EU have been given a green light to do so already, while those who want to take back control are currently gagged … It looks like the government is focusing its energies on gearing up the full weight of the Whitehall machine to campaign to keep us in the EU rather than on bringing powers back from Brussels.”



In his note, Cameron said he expected ministers to behave in a collegiate way during the “highly exceptional circumstances” of the EU referendum campaign, which is expected to last between 14 and 16 weeks.

He said: “Throughout this period, and in its aftermath, we will continue to have responsibility for governing the country and serving the public who elected us. This can only be done effectively if we remain, despite differences on this one issue, a united, harmonious, mutually respectful team.”