'Loser' David Cameron Scorned by British Rivals Over Juncker

London: British Prime Minister David Cameron's domestic opponents said on Friday he had been "humiliated" in his unsuccessful attempt to block the nomination of Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission.

Ed Miliband, leader of the main opposition Labour party, said Conservative Cameron had failed to build the alliances in the EU that he needed to block the path of a man the premier believes is an arch-federalist.

"I am afraid that after weeks of bluster and spin from David Cameron, this represents a complete humiliation," Miliband told Sky News television.

"He was supposed to be building alliances, but instead he has been burning alliances, that's why he has failed to deliver, and it's the British national interest that loses out as a result of this decision."

Miliband said the roots of Cameron's comprehensive defeat -- only Hungary joined Britain in voting against Juncker among the 28 EU member states -- lay in an inability to enlist more allies in the fight.

"The roots of this are long-standing. David Cameron has not built the alliances in Europe," Miliband said.

"The reason for that is that they think he is just being pushed around by his (eurosceptic) backbenchers.

"This is a consequence of years of failure by David Cameron.

"It emphasises the need for a European strategy that builds wider alliances, that builds alliances in the national interest."

In Brussels, a defiant Cameron said he stood by his campaign of opposition, and bemoaned the fact that his fellow leaders had backed a "career insider" at a time when an overhaul of the EU was needed.

He said he would press on with his commitment to re-negotiate Britain's EU membership before putting the new terms to a referendum in 2017, providing he wins a general election in Britain to be held in May 2015.

'The guy's a loser'

But Nigel Farage, the leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP), poured scorn on the prime minister.

"I'll say one thing about Cameron: the guy's a loser and he lost big today," Farage said on Twitter.

Farage, whose party finished top in European Parliament elections in Britain in May, said it was "game, set and match to Brussels."

"David Cameron's response to Juncker's appointment shows that he is a loser who has learned nothing," he said.

"If David Cameron had kept his cast-iron guarantee of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty he would not be in this parlous situation."

Farage said ahead of Juncker's nomination he believed Cameron was now weakened in his bid to obtain concessions from his fellow EU leaders.

"I think what's clear is that any cards that Mr Cameron may have had to play have been spent and have been lost over a futile battle that he was bound to lose from the beginning," he told Sky News.

"The renegotiation now doesn't look very likely," Farage said.

But Cameron won support from within his own party, even from the eurosceptic members who have caused him so much trouble in recent years.

Former Conservative party vice-chairman Bernard Jenkin said Cameron had "demonstrated that he is going to be a very tough negotiator".

"He's not going to be a pushover. And that will have an effect. That will strengthen his credibility with our European partners," the BBC website quoted him as saying.

Former cabinet minister John Redwood said Cameron was right to take a stand.

"To those who say Mr Cameron should not have sought to block Mr Juncker because he could not win, I say you are wrong," he wrote on his blog. "This episode has reminded all in the UK that the EU is not 'coming our way'."