Nick Clegg has just finished a press briefing at which he published results of a poll commissioned from MORI, which shows that by a margin of 2:1 voters prefer the Liberal Democrat policy of having a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU to David Cameron’s policy of only having a limited referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Only 8% of people want a referendum on both.
Today the right-wing papers are in full cry about a referendum claiming their view is representative of what the public wants. The Times leader says ‘Let the People Speak’ while The Sun puns its way to ‘EU must listen’.
Now the public have spoken about what sort of referendum they really want, will they listen…?
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Thinking of standing for election or re-election next year? Helpful questions to consider
The Joy of Six 1528
Endometriosis and acetylation
How Chancellor Reeves torpedoed the economy
Tristan Ward
cim
Iain Donaldson
Jennie
6 Comments
CLEGG CLAIMS SUPPORT FOR EU REFERENDUM STANCE
POLITICS EU
03 Mar 2008 – 15:23
By Joe Churcher, PA Political Correspondent (see also POLITICS Protest)
Page 1
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg claimed public support for his European Union referendum stance today as he attempted to see off an internal revolt on the issue.
But his charm offensive was immediately undermined by another survey which suggested there was little appetite for his policy among the party’s own supporters.
An opinion poll carried out for the party by Mori found more than twice as many backed a public vote on Britain’s membership of the EU than simply on the controversial Lisbon Treaty.
However an ICM survey carried out for the I Want A Referendum campaign group found 70% of the Lib Dems’ own voters would prefer both questions to be put to the public.
It was in danger of losing up to 15 seats at the next election over the issue, the poll suggested.
And the party’s defence spokesman Nick Harvey publicly backed the rival findings, saying the party “would do well to reflect upon” them.
“The objection to a referendum on the Treaty is that it would not give people a say on the wider issue of Britain’s membership and previous treaties.
“Clearly a two-question referendum would resolve that,” he said.
Mr Clegg has ordered his MPs not to break ranks by backing Tory calls for the more limited referendum in a crunch Commons vote on Wednesday – imposing a three-line whip.
He warned several prominent frontbench colleagues threatening to rebel of “developments” if they defied him – but refused to say whether they faced the sack.
And he flatly rejected the idea of a two-question referendum – which eurosceptic Labour MPs led by Ian Davidson hope to put to a Commons vote on Wednesday.
But Mr Clegg said: “We are certainly not going to get into a game playing with throwing in extra questions.
“Referenda work, if they work at all, best when you have a very clear and simple question which requires a yes or no answer.”
The ICM poll of 1,000 people who voted Liberal Democrat at the last General Election found only 25% supported the official party position.
The Government argues that a referendum is not necessary at all as, it says, the treaty is substantially different from the now abandoned EU constitution.
However Mr Clegg said a public vote now offered a “once in a generation opportunity for pro-Europeans in the Liberal Democrats and other parties to make the full-throated case for our long-term commitment to the European Union”.
He brushed off claims that as many as 16 of his MPs could defy a three-line whip order to abstain in the vote on the Tory amendment.
But asked if he expected to have to sack any of his frontbench team, he told reporters simply: “I very much hope not.”
“This is something we have extensively discussed as a Parliamentary party, that is why it is a three-line whip vote on Wednesday,” he said.
“Anyone who has been in those discussions knows that this is a collective discussion and if they were not to follow that three-line whip that would then to lead to developments which would arise between myself, those in question and the chief whip.
“I am not going to anticipate in detail what is going to happen until I know what has happened in the vote.”
Mr Clegg claimed that the vote on the original constitution promised by all three parties at the last election would effectively have been an “in or out” of the EU question.
“That is why our support for a referendum on staying in or out of the European Union is, in my view, entirely consistent with our manifesto commitment and much more consistent than the watered-down commitment now entered into by the Conservatives and much more consistent than the Government’s backing away from a referendum altogether.”
The party is in ongoing negotiations to secure a Commons debate and vote on its own referendum proposals – following last week’s walk-out protest.
He said they had not decided whether to repeat such an “exercise” this time.
“This opinion poll clearly shows that the Liberal Democrats are the only political party on the side of the British public on the European referendum,” Mr Clegg said of the Mori survey.
“It shows that people understand the huge difference between an honest debate about our future in Europe, and David Cameron’s mealy mouthed support for a restrictive referendum on the specific details of the Lisbon Treaty.”
mfl
Page 2
(reopens)
The Ipsos Mori poll of 1,026 adults in Great Britain between February 21 and 26 found the country backed a referendum on membership by 54% to 27%.
Given the choice, 18% said they would prefer a vote on the Lisbon Treaty and 38% on Britain’s membership as a whole.
And despite it not being put to them as an option, 8% said they would like “both” questions put.
In the ICM poll, of 1,000 people who voted Lib Dem in 2005, a quarter favoured Mr Clegg’s proposal with 70% backing the two-question option.
Almost a third said that they would be “less likely” to vote for the party next time if it voted against a referendum – against around 8% claiming it would increase their support.
Just over one in 10 said they would “definitely” switch support – a result the I Want A Referendum campaign said could cost the party 15 seats.
end
Yawn…
So why has it taken so long for the lib dems to want a referendum some parties have been calling for this for decades and is the reason UKIP was formed… Why should such a euro phile party want a referendum which most polls also show they would lose.
Are they backing an idea which they know will never be tested like most lib dem thoughta or is this some sort of a back door plan.. I honestly don’t trust any of this…. cough up whats the reason ? or have you seen how nationalist parties are popular and are trying to take away voters who believe you will give them a vote on europe without actually telling them that you are pro europe.
Why should such a euro phile party want a referendum which most polls also show they would lose
The answer lies in history (if the 1970s count as such). Back then at the start of the referendum campaign 2/3rds of people wanted to leave the (then) EEC; by the end of the campaign the situation was reversed.
I’m pretty confident we’d have a similar result – but it needs a proper campaign on a question that actually makes sense.
By contrast, a referendum on Lisbon would be a nonsense – I doubt any of us on here would get stimulated enough by the minutiae of that treaty and the only people who’d be bothered to vote would be the vehement Europhobes, for whom such a referendum would be an “in/out” referendum by proxy.
The manifesto commitment at least made sense because it was on a whole Constitution – including all of the preceding and far more significant treaties. But the Lisbon treaty on its own has very little of interest to it.
Dominic wrote:
“The manifesto commitment at least made sense because it was on a whole Constitution – including all of the preceding and far more significant treaties. But the Lisbon treaty on its own has very little of interest to it.”
But it wouldn’t really have been on all the preceding treaties, would it? Not in the sense that a “No” vote would have required those treaties to be repudiated, anyway.
Chris Phillips
I have just seen on the news the appaling decision about LIBDEMS abstaining on the EU Treaty vote. We, as elected members (I am a Borough Councillor in Bridgend) have NO right to abstain on ANY VOTE. We are elected to make decisions not to shirk our responsibilties. This very poor dicision will cost a lot of votes and consequently a lot of seats including local elections in May. The ALDC put out a lot of info to help win elections this one bad decision could cost us all very dear.