UK MPs may vote on EU constitution before election

And he signalled they could vote on it before Britain goes to the polls.

Mr Blair said the referendum campaign would be “a battle between reality and myth”.

He conceded he faced a tough fight to win the referendum but insisted once the public knew the truth about it, they would back it.

Mr Blair stressed he had secured all his “red lines” at last week’s Brussels summit over the key areas that made Britain a nation state.

He dismissed Tory plans to renegotiate EU treaties as “the door next to the exit door”.

Asked on BBC1’s Breakfast with Frost if MPs would vote on the deal ahead of the next General Election, Mr Blair replied: “Yes. I would have thought we would begin the process of debating it in the House of Commons before the next election.”

He said the Tories and the UK Independence Party wanted the referendum now because they feared that the longer the debate went on the more their myths would be exposed.

The constitution does not have to be ratified until the end of 2006. Mr Blair said there would first be a parliamentary debate. The treaty would not even be drawn up in its proper form before the end of the year.

Mr Blair said opinion polls indicated opposition to the constitution but that was because the public had not been told the truth about it.

“This is going to be a fascinating political battle because it will be a battle between reality and myth,” he said.

“If you actually have a debate about the reality then people will say ‘well what’s wrong with that? Why aren’t we being part of that’?”

Mr Blair said he had secured a good deal for Britain at the bitter talks in Brussels. The country had kept control over tax, immigration, defence and foreign policy.

“In all those key areas that go to make up Britain as a nation state if you like… there is no doubt about it. We have won every single thing we wanted to secure.

“This treaty gives us the chance to play a vital part in decision-making at the heart of the EU whilst it protects completely our right to set our taxes, run our foreign policy and defence and do the things that people want us to do.”

He said qualified majority voting was “perfectly sensible” as without it reform was impossible. The previous Tory government had properly introduced QMV in 30 to 40 different areas.

Mr Blair said he had not signed up to the constitution because he wanted “yet another issue for people to kick me around on”.

“The reason I have done this is that I believe it to be in the interest of Britain and I think the job of Prime Minister – even when it may be unpopular and you get attacked for doing things – you have got to do what you think is right.”

To get out now or marginalise Britain would be an “extraordinary act of foolishness”.

The premier said the EU was now changing and the new members shared Britain’s view on its future direction. They saw the EU as a union of nation states and not a federal superstate.

The new constitution gave far more power to the European Council where nation states negotiate. It gave national parliaments a say in Commission laws and streamlined decision-making, he said.

The premier insisted there was no question of a two-tier Europe. But some countries could push ahead and harmonise their tax if they wanted to, although most did not.

He said there should be two “big pillars” to Britain’s foreign policy – its relationship with the US and membership of the EU – the largest political alliance and the biggest economic market in the world.

“There is no reason why we should choose between the two.”

Mr Blair said the Tory position of renegotiating the EU treaties was “impossible”.

“That is not on offer. If you start trying to renegotiate Britain’s terms of membership of the EU, that is the door next to the exit door.”

Labour backbenchers have already spoken out against the constitution. Mr Blair said there had always been a traditional Labour left-wing position against EU but those opponents did not represent the “centre of gravity” of the party.