David Cameron was on Monday licking his wounds after the largest parliamentary rebellion of his premiership as 79 Tory MPs voted in favour of a referendum on Britain’s relationship with Europe.

The government won the House of Commons vote late Monday by 483 votes to 111 due to support from the Liberal Democrats — the Tories’ euro-friendly junior coalition partners — and the main opposition Labour Party.

But in the biggest show of internal dissent in his 18 months in charge, the Tory eurosceptic wing ignored Cameron’s plea that it was the wrong time for a referendum because of the debt crisis engulfing the eurozone.

After helping orchestrate the biggest ever Conservative rebellion over Europe, senior backbench lawmaker Mark Pritchard insisted it would become “more rather than less of an issue” over the rest of the parliament.