David Liddington, the Europe Minister, has just told the Murnaghan Show that the moment
for a referendum on the European Union is once a treaty change has been agreed. Liddington argued that then everyone would know what they were voting on.
This is quite a significant shift in the government’s position. Up to now, the position has been that there would only be a referendum if yet more powers were transferred from Westminster to Brussels. Liddington appeared to be saying that a vote would follow any new treaty, even one that brought powers back. This moves the government far closer to a position of renegotiation followed by a referendum.
If the Tory part of the coalition had taken a line far closer to this from the beginning, stressing that they wanted powers back from Brussels and would put the results of any renegotiation to a referendum, then more than a third of Tory backbenches wouldn’t be planning to defy a three line whip on Monday.
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