UK:Gordon Brown's government was confident of victory in the Commons last night - and of its longer-term ability to outflank the Conservative opposition - as MPs began their scrutiny of the Bill ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, writes Frank Millar, London Editor.
The Conservatives were voting against the second reading motion approving the principle of the Bill. However, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's decision that his party would abstain offset any danger posed by a threatened rebellion on the Labour backbenches - and would seem to have killed off Tory hopes of defeating the government further down the line in a specific vote on the issue of a referendum.
Eighteen Labour MPs and four nationalist MPs tabled a motion yesterday calling for a referendum. Following speaker Michael Martin's decision not to select it for a vote last night, Conservative foreign affairs spokesman William Hague insisted: "Conservatives and many members of other parties will vote for a referendum during later stages of the Bill in the next few weeks." Mr Hague also defended last night's vote against the second reading, arguing that the Bill "has no democratic mandate from the British people".
However, while ministers know they are set to take a hit over Labour's "broken promise" on a referendum, Mr Brown hopes the protracted parliamentary process will revive latent Tory divisions over Europe and embarrass Conservative leader David Cameron over his pledge to renegotiate the treaty even if it wins parliamentary ratification.
Mr Clegg explained his decision to abstain on the referendum issue, saying that any public vote should instead be about Britain's membership of the EU. "The argument over a referendum is being used as a smokescreen to hide the real issue of whether we want to be part of the EU or not," he said.
"The government has become terrified of making the case for Europe, whilst the Tories are using the debate over a treaty as an excuse to retreat into old-school Euroscepticism."
However, the government came under fire yesterday from the Labour-controlled foreign affairs committee of MPs who claimed there were only minor differences between the treaty and the abandoned EU constitution on which Labour had promised a referendum.
Foreign secretary David Miliband said: "The reform treaty is there for parliament to scrutinise and then pass. Obviously people will put down an amendment and parliament will have to decide. But I don't believe this treaty meets the bar of fundamental constitutional reform that should be the basis of having a referendum." Rebel Labour MP Ian Davidson maintained they were "at the start of the battle, rather than the end of the war".