Shropshire MP backs PM after vow UK will not pay £1.7bn EU fee

In a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Cameron made clear he believes the row triggered by last week's request for more cash is undermining support for British membership of the EU, and warned that Brussels must change if it is to regain taxpayers' trust.

But the Prime Minister was accused of being "asleep at the wheel" by Labour leader Ed Miliband, who said Mr Cameron should have been aware for at least two years that changes to Britain's contribution to the EU budget were in the offing.

But his stance was backed by Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard.

He said: "The Prime Minister is right to take on Brussels over this. I am giving him my full support."

However, Tory MP Kenneth Clarke – until July a member of Mr Cameron's Cabinet – cast doubt on the Prime Minister's claim that the demand took the Government by surprise, telling MPs that the Foreign Office and Treasury must have known for at least five months that it was on its way.

Mr Cameron's statement came shortly after a senior Brussels official warned that British efforts to renegotiate the figure risked opening a "Pandora's box" which could put the future of the UK's £3 billion-a-year EU rebate in question.

Budget commissioner Jacek Dominik said it would be "extremely difficult" for the UK to challenge the demand, as any change would require securing the support of a qualified majority of member states for amendments to EU law.

Mr Dominik warned that the UK was obliged by law to pay by December 1 and would be liable for "late payment fines" if it failed to hand over the cash – which reflects changes in the relative national income of different EU states – on time.

But Mr Cameron told the Commons: "Britain will not be paying two billion euros to anyone on December 1 and we reject this scale of payment.

"We will be challenging this in every way possible. We want to check on the way the statistics were arrived at, the methodology that was used."