Mr Cameron said he had helped put the budget issue “on the menu” David Cameron says he has protected British taxpayers by putting the spotlight on reining in EU budget “excesses” at a Brussels summit.
He has been accused of “grandstanding” after saying he wanted the 2001 budget frozen, then agreeing to a 2.9% rise.
The UK PM secured agreement from 10 EU leaders that the rise should not exceed 2.9%, amid calls for a 5.9% rise.
He said the “crazy” 5.9% was “dead” and a separate opt-out had ensured the UK would not bail out EU states.
But Labour’s Yvette Cooper said it had been a “complete failure” and Eurosceptic Tory MEP Roger Helmer said he should simply have refused to pay.
In a press conference at the close of the summit, Mr Cameron said while he had wanted a freeze in the 2011 EU budget, he had been “looking down the barrel of a potential 6% increase” and his aim had been to stop it adding: “We have succeeded quite spectacularly, we put together a big alliance to stop that juggernaut of 6% in its tracks.”
“A few days ago the budget wasn’t even on the menu, we put it on the menu,” he said.
But Labour – and Eurosceptics in Mr Cameron’s own party – have questioned whether it was much of an achievement.
Conservative MEP Roger Helmer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think we could have done better, I think we should have done better. Only two days ago we were talking about a freeze or even a cut and yet here we are rolling over – 2.9% is no great achievement, it’s the position that the Council held beforehand.”
And shadow foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said: “David Cameron’s grandstanding has been a complete failure. European governments decided on 2.9% in August so he has achieved absolutely nothing.
“He’s tried to swing his handbag but simply ended up clobbering himself in the face.”
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