BRITAIN:Gordon Brown appears determined to defy popular demands for a British referendum on the EU reform treaty, despite mounting internal Labour Party pressure ahead of this week's European summit in Lisbon.
The prime minister yesterday acknowledged another challenging week ahead, following the first public signs of Labour doubts about his leadership and an ICM poll giving the Conservatives a seven-point lead and their highest ratings since "Black Wednesday" in 1992.
Mr Brown made light of Blairite rumblings about his performance in recent weeks, vowing he would remain and would determinedly make all the decisions necessary for the future of the country.
However, Gisela Stuart - a senior Labour MP and former government representative on the EU convention - yesterday dismissed the prime minister's famous "red lines" as "red herrings", insisting that the new EU treaty contains "90-95 per cent" of the abandoned constitution, while branding Mr Brown's refusal to hold a referendum as "patently dishonest".
The pressure on Mr Brown is set to increase later today, with the Labour-led European scrutiny committee of MPs warning that the prime minister's red-line protections for British decision-making in key policy areas will be worn down and effectively "rubbed out" by the European Court within five years.
Committee chairman Michael Connarty has said a redraft of the treaty contains protocols that are "much tougher for the UK" and which would "threaten those red lines very, very quickly".
Conservative leader David Cameron has written to Mr Brown challenging him to honour Labour's 2005 manifesto commitment to hold a referendum.
Ms Stuart, meanwhile, suggested the opt-outs Britain had negotiated from the new treaty were broadly the same as those it obtained when Labour was promising a referendum.
"Sticking to your guns in defence of a patently dishonest position is not leadership but the soft option and a cop-out from a specific promise made to voters," Ms Stuart wrote in the Evening Standard.
"The red lines are red herrings. It's a matter of trust and integrity. A referendum was promised. It should be delivered. If Labour can't trust the people, why should the people trust Labour?"