Did The Conservatives Campaign On A Lie In European Elections 2009?

Much has been made of David Cameron's breaking of the 'cast-iron' guarantee he gave on 26th September 2007, which for the record was this: "No treaty should be ratified without consulting the British people in a referendum. Today, I will give this cast-iron guarantee: If I become PM a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations."

Yet here Timothy Kirkhope, at the launch of the 2009 European election campaign in Rawstenstall, Rossendale and Darwin said this: "To do this, we want to bring Europe closer to its people.  That is why we are campaigning in this election for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty - the referendum Labour promised but has never delivered." No 'ifs', 'buts' or 'maybe' - "we are campaigning in this election for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty" - no mention of pre-ratification or post-ratification, just a plain statement.

From the Sun, on 1st June 2009: "He also repeated his vow to hold a referendum on the hated Lisbon Treaty if he becomes PM. He said: If you vote Conservative you are voting to put pressure on the Government to hold that referendum on the European constitution that Labour promised and haven't delivered." I don't recall any repudiation of the first part of that statement stating Cameron would hold a referendum.

Their 2009 European election manifesto stated: "We pledge that if the Lisbon Treaty is not in force in the event of the election of a Conservative Government this year or next, we will hold areferendum on it, urge its rejection, and – if successful – reverse Britain’s ratification. And if the Constitution is already in force by then, we have made clear that in our view political integration in the EU would have gone too far, the Treaty would lack democratic legitimacy, and we would not let matters rest there. " Any statement that says "in our view political integration in the EU would have gone too far, the Treaty would lack democratic legitimacy", even allowing for the "we would not let matters rest there" implies that a referendum is still possible.

During the European election campaign the Conservatives kept repeating that a vote for them was a vote for a referendum, whilst still maintaing silence on what their policy would be if Lisbon had been ratified by the time of the next General election. By not stating their position and in effect asking the British electorate to sign a blank cheque, was that not deceitful?

It was not until very recently that, under pressure, Cameron started saying that, if ratified, Lisbon would be a legal treaty and therefore a referendum would not be possible.

Just a thought..........