GORDON BROWN faces a fresh test of his authority today over his drive to reform MPs’ expenses following a surprise Commons defeat for government policy restricting the right of former Gurkha soldiers to settle in the UK.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, have stepped up their campaign for a Brown “EU-turn” and a British referendum on the Lisbon Treaty – hinting that an incoming government led by David Cameron might still hold one, even if the treaty has already been ratified by all member states.
Mr Cameron’s effective “deputy” and shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, significantly upped-the-ante in a newspaper interview suggesting that, without a referendum, the treaty would be without “democratic legitimacy”.
Mr Hague told the London Times that the Conservative general election manifesto would contain a promise of immediate legislation to enable a referendum if the treaty had not been ratified by the whole of the EU. However he went further than before in suggesting that the manifesto would also spell out what steps a Conservative government would take to “reverse European integration” if it found the ratification process already complete. Pressed as to whether a referendum could still be promised in those circumstances, Mr Hague said: “We would not rule anything in or out.”
This apparent determination to “kill the Lisbon treaty” was headlined in an article in which Mr Hague also became the first member of the Tory leadership to predict a Conservative victory in the general election that must be held by June next year.
While echoing Mr Cameron’s insistence that there was no complacency among the leadership, Mr Hague suggested “a trend” was now emerging. “It is likely that we are going to be able to win the general election . . . I put it no more strongly than that,” he said.
Mr Hague’s prediction came on a day that saw a petition calling for Mr Brown’s resignation become the most popular on the 10 Downing Street website. More wounding for Mr Brown was the defeat on a non-binding Liberal Democrat motion on government rules restricting rights of residence for Gurkhas which were branded “shameful” by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.
In a sharp exchange with Mr Brown, Mr Clegg accused the prime minister of lacking honesty and decency in refusing people who had been “prepared to die” for the country the right to live in it.