Clegg accused of cowardice as he skips Cameron’s summit defence

The Liberal Democrat leader said he did not want to provide a “distraction” by appearing in his usual place at the Prime Minister’s side as Mr Cameron told MPs that he had taken “the right course for this country” at the Brussels summit.

But his absence was branded “cowardice” by one Conservative MP, and Mr Cameron’s statement was repeatedly interrupted by Labour shouts of “Where’s Nick?”.

Mr Clegg was later forced to insist that the coalition was “here to stay” until 2015, despite confirming that he and the Conservative Prime Minister “clearly do not agree on the outcome of the summit”.

A senior Labour source branded the Lib Dem leader’s no-show “spineless”, telling reporters: “The Commons chamber is the place where you debate issues and air your differences – you don’t hide outside.”

And Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman, Douglas Alexander, issued an appeal to disgruntled Lib Dem MPs to join the opposition party in trying to win back friends and allies in Europe and prevent Britain’s “marginalisation”.

Mr Cameron was given a rousing reception by eurosceptics on his own benches, who hailed him for standing up for UK interests at last week’s European Council meeting in Brussels.

He told MPs he had negotiated in “good faith”, but was forced to block a treaty of all 27 member states after other EU countries refused to agree to “modest, reasonable and relevant” safeguards for the City of London.

“We went seeking a deal at 27 and I responded to the German and French proposal for treaty change in good faith, genuinely looking to reach agreement at the level of the whole of the European Union,” he said.

“The choice was a treaty without proper safeguards or no treaty and the right answer was no treaty. It was not an easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.”

But Labour leader Ed Miliband accused Mr Cameron of neglecting the national interest in order to appease Conservative eurosceptics with a result that was “bad for business, bad for jobs, bad for Britain”.

Mr Miliband quoted Mr Clegg several times in his dismissal of the Prime Minister’s claims for the summit.

“How can you expect to persuade anyone else it’s a good outcome when you can’t persuade your own deputy?” he said. It was not a veto “when the thing you wanted to stop goes ahead without you”, he added.

“That’s called losing, that’s called being defeated, that’s called letting Britain down.”

Branding the outcome of the summit a “diplomatic disaster” for the UK, Mr Miliband accused Mr Cameron of “walking away” from talks instead of negotiating a better deal for Britain.

A source close to Mr Miliband later said: “We wouldn’t have signed the treaty, but we would have stayed in the negotiation and signed a better deal. Blair or Thatcher would have extended the talks. Any other Prime Minister would have extended them.”

However Conservative MPs were loud in their congratulations for Mr Cameron, with former Minister John Redwood said Britain’s negotiating position was stronger because other European states now know “they are dealing with a Prime Minister who will say ‘No’ if he needs to”.

But the Prime Minister was quick to close down suggestions that last week’s veto should be followed by a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. “Our membership of the EU is vital to our national interests,” he said. “We are a trading nation and we need the single market for trade, investment and jobs.”