Prime minister will have unanimous backing of Commons, plus the French and Dutch
David Cameron and George Osborne set themselves on a collision course with European Union officials after they flatly opposed a 4.9% increase in the EU budget next year.
The plan was put forward in Brussels by Janusz Lewandowski, the EU budget commissioner. He claimed the move was required to meet the cost of previous EU decisions, made earlier in the seven-year budget cycle and said "despite the climate of austerity we have to grow".
Cameron and Osborne said the proposals were unacceptable, and intend to use the support of their French and Germans counterparts to rein in the EU commission. The prime minister's spokesman vowed Cameron would take a tough stance. Osborne said the EU needed a reality check, while the shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander described the request as ill-judged and unwise.
Last December Cameron led a charge by a group of leading EU states including France and Germany to sign a letter demanding budgets were frozen until the ends of the EU's budget round in 2013.
There was no sign that any political party in the UK will tolerate a large rise, even if the Commission claims it has frozen administrative spending.
Cameron will have the unanimous support of the Commons plus the backing of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy as well as the Dutch, now one of Britain's closest allies in the EU.
The Dutch foreign minister Jan Kees de Jager said the Dutch will only accept a substantially lower budget, adding "these proposals are out of proportion". The proposed rise is above EU inflation and would take Commission spending to £117bn.
Annual budget battles are frequent, and this will be seen as a precursor to a wider and more important battle over the 2013-2020 budget. One well known right wing tory backbencher promised his party would cut up rough.