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MPs piled on the pressure over the government's approach to Europe today, amid growing Conservative backbench disquiet over planned treaty changes.
Speaking during Foreign Office questions this afternoon Isle of Wight MP Andrew Turner questioned William Hague over his commitment to holding a referendum on any future European treaty.
"It is said that the eurozone needs a new treaty to make it lawful to bail out Greece, yet it's claimed this will not affect the UK as we are not part of the eurozone," he said.
"Can the minister confirm the UK will not need to sign the treaty, of if we do the public will be given a referendum."
While Sir Peter Tapsell said the government should seize the moment to renegotiate Britain's entire relationship with Europe.
"Now that the German chancellor is insisting the amendment of European treaties including Lisbon, will there ever be a better opportunity for Britain to renegotiate its relationships with the EU and seek repatriation of powers abandoned by previous governments?" he said. "Or is that vetoed by Lib Dem members of coalition."
The foreign secretary said it was the government's "long standing position" that any treaty that transferred new areas of competence to EU would be subject to referendum.
But he said it was "clear beyond doubt" that UK would be exempt from any sanctions under the stability and growth pact as Britain was not a member of the Euro.
And Hague told MPs that his top priority was to "bring realism" to budgeting in the European Union and accused Labour of giving away "billions of pounds of taxpayers money".
Labour backbenchers had fun exploiting perceived divisions within the coalition over their government's handling of Brussels.
Former Europe minister Denis Macshane congratulated the foreign secretary for his new "Europe friendly approach" and said he welcomed the new "flexible" manner in which the coalition front bench had been dealing with the European Union.
While Wayne David asked Hague whether the government intended to honour a pledge made in the Conservative Party manifesto to introduce legislation that would see powers repatriated from Brussels to Westminster.
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg recently irritated many Conservatives by saying the government would not seek to claw back powers from Brussels.
"We are not going to reopen this issue of the repatriation of powers. We are not proposing to go backwards," he said.
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