Lib-Dems make a third U-turn on referendum – will now vote with the Government
02 April 2008
The Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords will reverse the party’s position of abstaining on a referendum in the Commons, and will now vote with the Government against a referendum. A Lib Dem abstention on a referendum in the Upper House would have significantly boosted the chances of a referendum.
Lord McNally, Lib Dem leader in the Lords said, "We will not abstain on a referendum amendment in the Lords. The arithmetic in the Commons is different from the Lords.” He told reporters outside the Lords chamber that he would not even be moving an amendment on continued membership of the EU. He added: "We will vote with the Government against a referendum on the treaty."
Director of the I Want a Referendum campaign Neil O'Brien is quoted on PA: "The Liberal Democrats promised a referendum at the election, abstained in the Commons, and are now against a referendum in the Lords. The Lib Dems have behaved in a deeply hypocritical and dishonest way, saying one thing and doing another.”
"This is a humiliation for Nick Clegg. He has been unable to make his own peers follow his policy. This is very damaging for the Liberal Democrats' credibility. Nick Clegg is now being pushed around by his own party, rather than leading it. It makes him look like a very weak leader."
Baroness Shirley Williams, who is rumoured to have threatened defection to Labour if the Lib Dems backed a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty said of the promise of a referendum: "That commitment was embarrassing. I believe it was not in the interests of this country or in the interests of a good relationship with the rest of the EU."
Conservative leader in the Upper House, Lord Strathclyde, said outside the chamber: "David Heath and two others [all frontbench Lib Dem MPs] had to resign in order to honourably uphold their manifesto commitment to a referendum. Lords McNally, Shutt and Thomas of Gresford are shadow cabinet members too. Why is Mr Clegg not making them resign if they don't abstain?”
Labour former leader Lord Kinnock, an ex-EU Commissioner, who also spoke in the debate, said the Treaty "does not create a single new competence for the EU".
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