Conservatives threaten break over EU vote

LONDON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Some members of British Prime Minister David Cameron's government say they'll resign over his attempt to get lawmakers to vote against a European Union bill.

Members of his administration joined lawmakers in Cameron's Conservative Party who said they are angry about his order that they reject a House of Commons referendum concerning Britain's relationship with the EU, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

Stewart Jackson, an aide to Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson, said he was ready to quit and back a referendum vote scheduled for Monday. Sources within the Conservative Party said four other parliamentary private secretaries -- who act as unpaid aides to a minister -- were considering following Jackson's lead.

The prime minister's office has said parliamentary private secretaries were expected to vote with Conservatives Monday and those who refused would be fired, the Telegraph reported.

Cameron was expected to meet privately with the parliamentary private secretaries before the vote that would call for a referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union.

Jackson told Radio 4 he was prepared to be fired.

"Some things are more important than party preferment -- the views of people who have had no say on a policy in any substantive sense for 36 years," he said. "I owe it to them to give them that say."

So far, more than 50 Conservatives said they would support the referendum. Labor and Liberal Democrat officials said their members would vote against it.