Government dismisses calls for EU referendum
Nine out of ten people want a referendum before the Government makes a decision on the proposed EU constitution.
That’s according to the latest poll by ‘The Daily Mail’. And the paper’s verdict is backed up by an ICM poll, published alongside the less scientific survey. It shows a marginally lower demand for a referendum with 88% of people in favour.
The Prime Minister is travelling to Greece later this week to discuss the proposals which the Government has described as a “tidying-up exercise”. However, politicians on all sides have claimed that the new blueprint for the soon-to-be-enlarged EU signals a major constitutional change for the UK.
An individual president could be elected, along with a foreign minister, taking away key powers from national parliaments with particular regard to international affairs and defence.
There are also concerns about other areas including fiscal policy, although the Government has insisted that it will not back measures such as tax harmonisation.
Almost 1.7 million voted last Thursday at 7,000 polling stations set up by ‘The Daily Mail’, while ICM questioned a sample of 55,000 people.
Only 4% of voters opposed a referendum in the paper’s poll. Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith told ‘The Daily Mail’ that the result of the two polls proved “just how arrogant and out of touch the Prime Minister is” in denying the public a referendum.
Foreign secretary Jack Straw claimed today, however, that there was no need for a public vote as the proposals “had not fundamentally shifted the balance of power between member states and the union”.
