Straw to face calls for EU referendum
A sizeable contingent of MPs on both sides of the Commons today will press Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for a referendum on the European Union’s new constitution.
At Foreign Office Questions, eurosceptic MPs will demand the Government acknowledges the right of the British people to vote on the controversial treaty.
But the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said Mr Blair did not believe a referendum would be “appropriate.”
For his part, Mr Straw is expected to outline the Government’s position on a range of issues ahead of the EU intergovernmental conference in Brussels later this week.
The Conservatives have vowed to fight “tooth and nail” on the issue.
The Tories committed themselves to opposing the treaty at every turn at their annual party conference in Blackpool last week.
Tory foreign affairs spokesman Michael Ancram: “Once again, Mr Blair is contemptuously dismissing the right of the British people to determine their own future. He is increasingly isolated within Europe in his anti-democratic attitude.
‘He is the only leading politician in Europe to think that the EU Constitution won’t fundamentally change to our relationship with the EU. In fact, it would be a great leap towards a single European state.
“The British people know it’s important, which is why 88 per cent of them want a referendum on it. We know that it would create difficulties for his Government, but surely democracy is more important than Tony Blair’s political convenience. He should bite the bullet and give the people a vote.”
No 10 insists the constitution is only a “tidying up” of existing EU treaties.
Separately, the UK pledged yesterday to spend more than half a billion pounds on reconstruction efforts in Iraq over the next three years and called on other EU countries to follow suit.
At a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Mr Straw said: “We would encourage others to be as generous as they are able within the limits of their own spending plans.”
