Then on November 28th a more ardent Labour Europhile, Tony Blair, warned that drifting out of Europe was a grave threat to Britain's global heft.Even some Eurosceptic Tories fear that things are getting out of hand.
Labour, a more Europhile party, has yet to decide whether to match the Tories' promise of an in-out referendum.
Last year, after the Brexit vote, Corbyn publicly accepted the result of the referendum against the wishes of some Europhile Labour M.P.s and said that Labour, which had long championed European integration, would seek to restrict the movement of workers across borders.
They were marginalised, their rebellious votes neutralised by Europhile Labour and Liberal (later Lib Dem) MPs, as well as most of Fleet Street where – as at Westminster – most top jobs were held by "never again" veterans of the second world war.
Against all this, I asked Denis MacShane, a former Europe minister under Tony Blair and one of the country's and Labour's most enthusiastic Europhiles, what he thought were the chances of new British involvement in Europe through a coalition including Mr. Clegg.
But if anything, in the early days, Tories were more likely to be cosmopolitan and Europhile than Labour.
However, not all Labour MPs are fully paid up Europhiles.
Some Europhiles worry that, despite the Labour's official support for the In campaign, Jeremy Corbyn is lukewarm.
Yet some Europhiles fear the referendum could be lost unless the Labour leader puts his shoulder to the wheel.
