Cameron under pressure to promise EU referendum in UK
British Conservative party leader David Cameron is coming under increasing pressure from his own MPs to promise a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty – even if it is ratified before the Tories come to power.
Almost a quarter of Conservative MPs are now backing a plebiscite, come what may, despite their leader’s refusal to commit himself.
Mr Cameron has led demands for Prime Minister Gordon Brown to hold a referendum on the controversial document, arguing it is virtually identical to the EU Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters two years ago.
But, amid a growing clamour among Tory MPs to give voters a retrospective say on the treaty, he said yesterday there were a number of “hypotheticals” involved and that the time for the vote was now.
But some 44 of the Conservative Party’s 197 MPs have backed a Commons motion calling for a referendum “before or after ratification”.
Mr Brown has faced fierce criticism of his refusal to hold a referendum on the treaty despite a Labour manifesto pledge to hold one on the Constitution.
Ministers insist that the treaty is substantially different to the Constitution and that the Prime Minister has secured “red lines” to maintain British sovereignty over crucial areas like policing and judicial co-operation.
The Government has offered lengthy debating time in the House of Commons ahead of the treaty’s ratification next year.
Signatories of the Early Day Motion, tabled by Eurosceptic MP Bill Cash, claim that the “red lines” do not offer sufficient protection and point out that voters have not been given a direct vote on the European Union since 1975.
They add: “The Reform Treaty is a consolidation of the existing treaties into a merger of the European Community into a European Union involving substantial, fundamental, constitutional and structural change by the Government’s own criteria for a referendum.”
