UK government survives EU referendum vote

His government won with a majority of 372, Britain's Channel Four News reported.

Cameron said on Monday he sympathised with those who wanted a new relationship with Brussels, but said the eurozone debt crisis meant now was not the time for a national vote which could lead to Britain leaving the European Union altogether.

Between 60 and 100 of the party's 305 MPs were tipped to defy Cameron and back a referendum in a non-binding vote later in the day, in a resurgence of divisions that threatened to tear the Tories apart in the 1990s.

The Guardian quoted deputy Conservative chair Michael Fallon as saying just over 80 Conservative MPs may have rebelled.

The Liberal Democrats - the Conservatives' euro-friendly junior coalition partners - and the main opposition Labour Party were expected to vote with the government. The Guardian cited PolitcsHome's report that 25 Labor MPs voted in favour of the referendum.

PUBLIC SUPPORT

The rebellion is politically significant, particularly as polls suggest it has public support. A YouGov survey for the Sunday Times at the weekend found that 66 per cent of Britons back a referendum on European Union membership. A Guardian/ICM poll found that 49 per cent would vote for British departure from the European bloc.

"It's not the right time, at this moment of economic crisis, to launch legislation that includes an in-out referendum," Cameron told the House of Commons at the start of a lengthy debate.

"When your neighbour's house is on fire, your first impulse should be to help him put out the flames. ... This is not the time to argue about walking away."

He said he understood MPs' "frustration" over Europe and shared their "yearning for fundamental reform, and I am determined to deliver it."

But he said Britain should focus on helping resolve the eurozone crisis, which itself would provide its own opportunities for reform, as it raised questions about the nature of the single currency and EU institutions.

"Our national interest is to be in the EU," which is Britain's biggest export market, Cameron said, adding that a referendum "could cause great uncertainty and could actually damage our prospects of growth".

The proposed referendum would have asked the British public if they want to remain in the EU, leave or renegotiate membership, in the first such vote since 1975.

One MP, Adam Holloway, resigned as aide to Europe minister David Lidington so he could vote for a referendum, saying: "I'm really staggered that loyal people like me have actually been put in this position."

Another eurosceptic MP, Philip Davies, told the debate that Britain's future lay with emerging economies such as China, India and South America, and "not being part of a backward-facing, inward-facing protection racket which is what the European Union is, propping up inefficient businesses and French farmers."

Cameron has insisted he is defending Britain's interests in Europe, and at a stormy EU summit on Sunday he threatened to "exact a price" if the 17 countries that use the euro sought closer integration to deal with the crisis.

His stance sparked a row with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said he was "sick of you (Cameron) criticising us and telling us what to do" about the eurozone.

Labour leader Ed Miliband seized on this during Monday's debate, saying the row at home was preventing Cameron from fighting Britain's corner in Brussels.

"Apparently President Sarkozy, until recently his new best friend, had had enough of the posturing, the hectoring, the know-it-all ways. Mr President, let me say, yesterday, you spoke not just for France but for Britain as well," he said.

Miliband added: "We see a re-run of the old movie - an out-of-touch Tory party tearing itself apart over Europe.

"And all the time the British people are left to worry about their jobs and livelihoods. The prime minister should stop negotiating with his backbenchers and start fighting for the national interest."