Tories Need Their Own Treaty Over Europe ; What the Mayor Really Wants Is a Referendum On the Whole Issue of Britain's Membership of the Eu. Can David Cameron Rein Him In?

Evening Standard - London (October 05, 2009)

Author: Matthew D'Ancona

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Summary

IT IsN'T as easy as it looks, is it? As the Conservative conference opens in Manchester today, David Cameron and his team have been given an unwelcome taste of what it is like to experience the full blast of pitiless scrutiny that comes with government -- or, in their case, the assumption that you will very soon be in office. And, as ever with the Tory Party, it is europe that has delivered the slap across the face.

rarely does Cameron look perturbed, but even his forehead furrowed yesterday morning as the BBC's Andrew Marr pressed him again and again on the eU Lisbon Treaty, approved last week by the Irish people in their second referendum on the subject. We know that the Tories want to give the British people their own vote if the fate of the treaty is undecided when they come to power. But what if the Treaty has been fully ratified by the time Mr Cameron steps across the threshold of Number Ten?