Brussels, 4th March -- Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, was accused by one his former MEPs of running a "farcical" policy on the Reform Treaty which is alienating his own MPs, MEPs, party members and the public. The new Conservative MEP, Sajjad Karim, who defected from the Liberal Democrats in November, calls on his former colleagues in the Commons to back David Cameron's referendum amendment tomorrow.
Mr Karim says:
"The Lib Dems are twisting in the wind on the referendum. For the first time in our history we see the imposition of a three line whip forcing Lib Dem MPs to sit on the fence or face the consequences. Those who follow this line will soon find that the public mood is set against taking away the right of the public to have their say."
"Passionately Euro-federalist Lib Dem MEPs wanted the original constitution and still want it in the form of the Lisbon Treaty*. Nick Clegg's call for an 'in or out' vote is a complete U-turn on manifesto commitments and is nothing but a party stitch-up intent on bailing Brown out but it is failing."
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Quotes from Lib Dem MEPs
January 2005 - Lib Dem MEPs voted to "endorse the Constitutional Treaty and wholeheartedly support its ratification" by voting in favour of the Corbett/Méndez de Vigo report - on a Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.
January 2005 - During the debate on the above mentioned report, the now Leader of the UK Lib Dem MEPs, Andrew Duff MEP, said:
"If you are for Europe, you should be for the Constitution. Europe will not work without strong authorities in Brussels. Without the Constitution, things will not work properly and the quality of policy flowing from Brussels and Strasbourg will begin to decline".
May 2005 - Andrew Duff MEP wrote in a letter to the Financial Times:
"A French 'No' will not kill off the constitutional project. The EU is wholly implausible without France. If France says 'No' now, it will have to say 'Yes' later".
January 2006 - The European Parliament approved a report by Andrew Duff on the future of the EU Constitution. His report called for a commitment to "achieving without undue delay a constitutional settlement". MEPs rejected an amendment proposed by Duff insisting that the "constitutional core" of the 2004 Constitution must form the basis of any future treaty.
October 2006 - "Plan B: how to rescue the European Constitution" was launched by Andrew Duff where he defended the core of the EU Constitution. He stressed his opposition to any proposal to drop the name "constitution." At the launch he said: "I always believed that the Constitution that we completed in 2004 is a first class piece of work".
February 2007 - Andrew Duff launched a publication entitled "Constitution Plus: renegotiating the treaty." In 'Constitution Plus', he rejected the arguments for a 'mini treaty' as being "dubious law, poor tactics and bad politics". He proposed to ring-fence Parts I and II of the 2004 Treaty from being opened up and advocated a "small number of highly significant improvements" to Parts III and IV.
May 2007 - Lib Dem MEPs supported the Brok report (CFSP 2005) with many supportive references to the Constitution.
June 2007 - Lib Dem MEPs supported the Brok/Baron Crespo report on the roadmap for the Union's Constitutional process. The report said: "[The European Parliament] reaffirms its commitment to achieving a settlement of the ongoing constitutional process of the European Union which is based on the content of the Constitutional Treaty, possibly under a different presentation".