Tony Blair’s EU Treaty Negotiations Demonstrate a Vulgar Deceit of the British Electorate

It is now clear that Tony Blair is hoping to ensure a new framework for the new Constitutional Treaty, only weeks before he leaves office. President Sarkozy’s recent comments from Germany, proposing that “Tony Blair and I have just agreed on what might be the framework for a simplified treaty” are devastating, given that the Foreign Secretary and Downing Street spokesmen have simultaneously promised the British people that there had been no such negotiations. The Labour government’s conduct throughout the secret negotiations demonstrate a shameful degree of deceit in face of public demand for a referendum.

The current Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, earlier insisted that no negotiations were being held whilst in the meantime, Blair and Sarkozy agreed on the framework for the EU Treaty at the G8 conference. Earlier claims made by Margaret Beckett before the parliamentary European Scrutiny Committee (ESC) on Thursday 7th June – insisting that "Nothing that you could really call negotiations has taken place" – remain largely erroneous.

Even when Bill Cash, MP, of the ESC asked Margaret Beckett to account for possible negotiations being held of which she was not aware, Beckett replied “It’s not that I don’t know what’s going on, it’s just that nothing is going on”. As it is now clear that the British government were forming negotiations with President Sarkozy at the time of their denial to Westminster, something clearly has been going on. The current Labour government has approached the British people with a striking degree of contempt – a level not seen since Blair’s troubled and ongoing foreign policy in Iraq.

It is clear from the current position that in order to make the European Union an institution which is beneficial to Britain and the other Member States, it is essential for the UK to hold a public referendum and thereby renegotiate its position not only on the new Constitutional Treaty but on all other existing treaties.

There should not even be a Constitutional Treaty and if either the Labour government does think it is necessary, it should not be signed behind the backs of the British people. The Treaty needs to be held to public referendum.


Bill Cash MP, Chairman of the European Foundation, said:
“Nothing surprises me with Tony Blair’s deceptive tactics. If nothing’s going on, why are Blair and Brown in discussions about the Treaty? Blair’s swan song is the European Treaty. As I said to Blair on the floor of the House in 1997, ‘you are walking on water now but you will drown in Europe.’ This is now coming true. If he doesn’t veto the treaty, his legacy will be deeply stained by his putting Europe before the national interest.”