This boy is for turning
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said this morning that the treaty was different in "absolute essence" from the defunct European constitution, so the Government was not obliged to follow through on its manifesto pledge to hold a referendum.
"We have not got a European constitution," Mr Miliband told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has refused to rule out a referendum on the EU reform treaty as Labour infighting grows over Europe.
In the face of a mounting Labour rebellion, he insisted last night the final decision should be left to Parliament.
But asked to say that there was no possibility of an eventual referendum, Mr Miliband repeatedly ducked the question.
Some Labour MPs believe Mr Brown may be increasingly tempted to call an early election if the EU referendum campaign continues to gather pace. One idea is that he could include a commitment to ratify the treaty in the election manifesto and, if he wins, use this to say he has a mandate not to call a referendum
Oh dear Diddums sounds as though he is getting rattled. He is afraid he is going to be called into the headmasters study and have to explain why he can't deliver a compliant parliament and populace who accept Gordon's word. Very frightening when you are very little.
Will Gordon duck a referendum by calling an election? Tempting in that Dave is still in disarray, and that there are some many traitorous Tories who love the troughs of Brussels so Cammy couldn't run an anti-Eu campaign. But then old cowardy custard Brown has always run away from any fight and I don't think he will risk an election being turned into an EU referendum. If he calls an election he will have neutralised the problem first.