By Andrew Osborn LONDON (Reuters) - The British government defended its refusal to pay a surprise European Union bill of 2.1 billion euros on Monday after Eurosceptic media praised Prime Minister David Cameron for taking what they called a noble stand against money-grabbing "Eurocrats". The EU demand made it harder to make the case to keep Britain in the bloc before a membership referendum he has promised in 2017 if he is re-elected next year. The row and the way it has been spun by the popular press and politicians shows Britain's decades-old distrust of the EU, a political shift towards greater Euroscepticism, and the intemperate nature of any debate about Europe in Britain. It also illustrated how the rise of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) has dramatically shifted the political centre of gravity towards Euroscepticism.
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