The truth about Shirley Williams and Europe

There was some speculation around the European referendum vote in Parliament that Shirley Williams had threatened to defect to Labour if the party didn’t oppose a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Shirley has a letter in today’s Times which is a very fulsome a rebuttal of those claims, including this bit:

I have never threatened to defect to Labour on any issue or at any time since I helped to found the Lib Dem party.

and

No one contacted me to ask whether this was true.