Blair refuses TV debate on EU

Tony Blair today rejected a challenge from the Conservative leader, Michael Howard, to hold a live televised debate on the EU constitution.

Mr Howard, springing a surprise in an attempt to capitalise on the prime minister's u-turn on a referendum yesterday, said a TV debate would allow the two leader to "explore all the issues".

But Mr Blair rejected the offer, saying: "The debate will be here in this house, then it will be in the country"

To loud Labour cheers, he also pointed out that the two men were currently having a "live televised debate", since prime minister's is broadcast by most 24-hour news channels.

"Let have a debate, we're on television, yes or no?" demanded Mr Blair in return, asking if the Conservatives would veto the treaty, or simply try to amend it.

The lengthy exchanges on Europe, which took up nearly half the 30-minute session, came after Mr Blair confirmed yesterday that a public vote would be held on the constitution.

The Commons spat later descended into a round of tit-for-tat letters, with Mr Howard claiming the PM could fudge a no vote by negotiating further concessions, then holding a second referendum to get the result he wanted.

He was responding to a letter from the PM, accusing the Tories of not spelling out what their call for a no vote entailed.

In a letter to Mr Howard, Mr Blair said: "I put to you this afternoon in the House of Commons a simple question. You failed to answer it.

"Can you now confirm whether you would reject the Constitutional treaty in its entirety or whether you would seek to amend it in discussion with our European partners?"

In a reply to Mr Blair's letter, Mr Howard wrote: "I have made our position very clear. Let me repeat it. We will accept the verdict of the British people in the referendum on the European constitution.

"If the British people were to vote yes, a Conservative government would accept the constitution.

"If the British people were to vote no, a Conservative government would veto the constitution: and we would not agree to any new treaty which establishes a constitution for the European Union.

"Britain, and any other member state, is free to reject the constitution and still remain a member of the European Union.

"However, the clear implication of what you said in the House of Commons today is that if the British people were to vote no in a referendum while you were still prime minister, you would follow the Irish precedent after the Irish people had voted no to the Nice Treaty, renegotiate in some minor way the constitution and then force the British people to vote again in a second referendum.

"In other words, if the British people did not vote the way you wanted, you would make them vote again until they did. You underestimate the British people."

During PMQs, Mr Howard repeatedly challenged the prime minister to spell out what he would do in the event of a no vote.

Mr Blair confirmed that if this happened, the treaty could not be ratified and the British government would have to sit down with the other EU states and work out "the way forward".

In turn, the prime minister accused Mr Howard of deliberately obscuring whether his position was to reject the treaty in its entirety or whether he was keeping open the option of amending the treaty.

Mr Howard told MPs: "We are against a constitution for the EU because countries have constitutions and nation states make treaties with each other."

The opposition leader opened his prolonged assault on Mr Blair by taunting him with a leaked cabinet memo and a jokey reference to an earlier question by Labour loyalist Chris Bryant (the MP for Rhondda).

"You can always tell when the government is in trouble when they call on Mr Bryant and start singing 'Help me Rhonda'," he said, in a reference to the Beach Boys song.

As the laughter died away, the opposition leader went on: "You recently sent a personal memo to all members of your cabinet.

"It says 'too often change has been initiated in ignorance of the risks and what might be done to deal with them. In future we need to ensure that risks have been adequately considered before we make policy announcements'.

"When you wrote that what exactly did you have in mind?"

Mr Blair taunted back that the government was merely trying to avoid such unpopular measures as the Conservatives' poll tax.