European Union (Amendment) Bill

Yet again, I must disagree with the right hon. Gentleman. The promise for a referendum referred to the new constitutional treaty, and we can then discuss what people believed that it stood for and so on. However, the promise concerned the new constitutional treaty, which, as we have heard, was voted down by voters in France and Holland and an attempt to resurrect it was effectively killed off. When we took over the EU presidency in July 2005, we had a period of reflection and, to everybody’s benefit, we managed to shift from the concept of a constitutional treaty to considering a measure that is far more modest in its effect—the Lisbon treaty. There was a period of reflection, and the view was taken that perhaps too much power was being given to the EU and that it was far better to get consensus from nation states, which the Lisbon treaty now reflects. That was the background to the manifesto pledge, and the commitment was to a vote on the new constitutional treaty. There are many differences between what was discussed in 2004-05 and what we have as a result of the Lisbon treaty. The Foreign Secretary has taken us through some of the major differences in content. I was interested to hear the shadow Foreign Secretary on the radio this morning. It is unfortunate that he is not in his place, because he came up with the totally illogical argument that a referendum was needed not because of content but because of some great principle that there should be a vote. He failed to address the substantive differences between the constitutional treaty and the treaty of Lisbon, but he knows that they are major and significant. He is looking for an argument to escape from the difficult position he would be in if he had to compare the content of the two treaties.