IWR in the news
03/03/08
Europe? It seems the jury's still out
Western Daily Press
More West Country voters made their feelings clear on the European constitution than voted in the local elections, it emerged yesterday.
Campaigners for a referendum on the European Union's controversial Lisbon Treaty claimed overwhelming public support.
The I Want A Referendum campaign said that in unofficial mini-referendums which it ran in 10 parliamentary constituencies, including Somerton and Frome in Somerset, 88 per cent voted in favour of a full-blown referendum on the treaty.
The unofficial polls aim to highlight public demand for a UK-wide referendum over the Lisbon Treaty - the revised EU Constitution.
They also gauged support for the treaty, which critics say would allow many more decisions to be taken by the EU, rather than by the UK's own elected politicians.
In the highest ever turnout in such an unofficial ballot, 152,520 people voted across the 10 marginal Labour and Liberal Democrat constituencies. Of these 133,251 voted for a referendum.
The announcement of the results came as MPs prepare to vote on Wednesday on whether to hold a referendum for real.
In Liberal Democrat David Heath's constituency of Somerton and Frome 36.2 per cent turned out to vote - almost six per cent more than those who voted for him in the 2005 election.
More than 87 per cent voted in support of a national referendum and almost 88 per cent said they would be against the Lisbon Treaty. This was in line with national figures of 88 and 89 per cent respectively. During the campaign, which started when a giant ballot inflatable ballot box was set up in the region in February, Mr Heath announced he would defy the party whip and vote for a referendum on the treaty.
He said he was "grown up enough" to accept that voting in favour of a European Union referendum might cost him his front-bench job.
David Heathcoat-Amory, Conservative MP for Wells and member of the I Want a Referendum advisory group, said: "The result in Somerton and Frome shows how outrageous it is that the Government has broken its election promise to hold a national referendum on a treaty which transfers massive power from the UK to Brussels.
"I'm not surprised Somerset opinion is overwhelmingly against the treaty, and wants to have the final say as was promised."
Polling expert Anthony Wells, from UK Polling Report, said: "A turnout in the mid thirties is stunning for a private referendum, higher than you'd expect to find in some actual local elections.
"Private referendums run the risk of only those sympathetic to the cause taking part in the vote, but with independent opinion polls consistently showing around four-fifths of those who express an opinion support a referendum, these don't seem too out of line," he added.
The announcement of the results came as MPs prepare to vote on Wednesday on whether to hold a referendum for real.
I Want A Referendum campaign chairman Mr Scott said the ''magnificent turnout'' in the referendum sent a ''clear message'' to the Government and the Liberal Democrats.
He said he hoped it would have an impact on MPs' vote on Wednesday on whether to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
But he stressed the campaign would "by no means" be over even if this week's result went in the Government's favour.
Mr Scott, a former economics adviser to ex-prime minister Tony Blair, said: "It is a clear message to those members of the Liberal Democrat and Labour parties who have broken promises that they gave at the last election to have a referendum on this treaty."