Ken Clarke’s announcement on the BBC Politics Show yesterday that the Conservatives would support the Lisbon Treaty if the Irish ratified it before the Tories come into Government was intensely disappointing. While many eurosceptics had been naturally concerned about the vague promises that “we will not let matters rest there” trooped out by numerous Shadow Cabinet members in the hot seat in recent weeks, many had hoped faithfully that the strong implication that the Conservative leadership would deliver a retrospective referendum was accurate. It is now down to David Cameron to clarify that position.
When Ken Clarke was invited into the Shadow Cabinet, the nation was told that he would not be allowed to force the Conservative Party into following his unnatural and unpopular support for closer EU integration. Sadly, it seems that yesterday he attempted to rush the Opposition into just such a commitment. Originally, he accepted publicly that he was out of step with majority Conservative and public opinion, and promised to bend to the Party line on Europe. He appears to have forgotten that pledge and blurted out his own, personal opinions as the Conservative Party’s official policy yet again.
Surely it must only be his personal view, because the arguments made by everybody else against the Lisbon Treaty and for a referendum remain as strong as ever. The case made by David Cameron against Lisbon is still as compelling as it was 13 days ago when he said that the Treaty would transfer too much power to Brussels, and that it was a part of the “endless process of building a European superstate” which is anathema to his and most people’s vision of our future relationship with Europe. Mr Cameron was right to promise to change the law so that powers can never be given away to the EU without a referendum first – and Ken Clarke’s comments are clearly incompatible with that promise.
Now, Mr Clarke and others may argue that the promise that matters would not be allowed to rest is semantically compatible with accepting the ratification of the Treaty. It’s true that it was a vague pledge, but it would be scandalous if it was intended as a “nudge nudge, wink wink” dog whistle to eurosceptics that was meant to dangle the promise of a retrospective referendum that would never actually be delivered. There are two possibilities here – either this was a cunning line that Ken has incompetently blown the lid off, in which case he has exposed a concerning truth about Tory policies on Europe, or he has jumped the gun, broken the line and deliberately or accidentally put David Cameron in a very awkward position.
I certainly hope it is that latter, an accidental blundering out of the Tory position which will soon be corrected by the Leader of the Opposition. And that’s perfectly possible - let’s not forget, Ken Clarke is clearly capable of blundering into interviews and getting policy wrong, either because he hasn’t researched it properly or because he doesn’t want to defend policies he doesn’t agree with. Remember the comments, again on Sunday television, that the Inheritance Tax pledge was simply an “aspiration”, and wasn’t a priority or a cast iron policy commitment? At that time, concerns that perhaps Ken was revealing a less radical Conservative agenda proved unfounded; he had simply got it wrong. David Cameron swiftly came back, rebuked Mr Clarke and said “a promise is a promise”.
Now, once again Ken has appeared to publicly ditch a Conservative Party promise to the electorate. Just like on Inheritance Tax, the policy of having a referendum on Lisbon is sensible, popular and necessary. Last time, David Cameron reassured the public that his promise still stood and that Inheritance Tax would be slashed. Now, with a crucial and extremely popular pledge teetering on the edge of the abyss, David Cameron must again correct Ken Clarke’s mistake and clarify that a promise is indeed a promise. We want – and deserve – our referendum, come what may.
