Labours broken promise
In 2005 Labour promised the people of Britain a vote on the EU Constitution, but it was rejected by the French and the Dutch. Now the Constitution is back with a new name the ‘EU Reform Treaty’. Conservatives believe that you should have the vote that you were promised. The people of Kingston and Surbiton clearly agree, shown by the hundreds of names Helen has collected all over the constituency.
Labour now refuses to hold a referendum and the Liberal Democrats have also reversed their position. Instead of backing our motion in Parliament calling for a referendum, our local MP abstained and made a headline-grabbing scene calling for a referendum on 'in versus out' - a position which had no probability of success.
Other parties claim that they have not made U-turns on the grounds that this treaty differs substantially from the original Constitution. However, this defence does not stand up to scrutiny, literally; compare the two documents and the similarities overwhelm the differences.
The Lisbon Treaty has far reaching consequences, bolstering EU institutions without resolving their democratic deficit, and making inroads into British sovereignty in critical areas like justice and foreign policy. This is why Helen has been campaigning against it and why she personally delivered the petition to Gordon Brown.
The petition is now closed but Helen will continue to campaign for a real say on the future of Britain and our relationship with the European Union.
