Tories mount push for referendum on EU

At their annual conference in Blackpool, northwest England, the Tories -- the most euroskeptic of Britain's political parties -- hope that a referendum would both humiliate Blair and stop the EU constitution dead in its tracks.

"We will fight this damaging constitution with everything we've got," Conservative foreign affairs spokesman Michael Ancram was to tell the conference later Wednesday.

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"From a start, the British people have a right to say yes or no in a referendum. Other EU countries are having referendums to decide," he said, according to an advance text of his speech given to journalists.

"Mr. Blair, what is wrong with the British people that we cannot be trusted to decide? "We will promote a petition to parliament requiring a referendum... The British people demand a referendum. They must have a referendum."

Referendums are rare in Britain, and Blair is resisting one on the EU constitution, saying that the hefty document to define who does what in the European Union is only a "tidying up" of existing EU treaties.

But the Conservatives argue that the constitution will spell the end of 1,000 years of British sovereignty, create a European superstate, and shift too much power to unelected officials -- known here as "eurocrats" -- in Brussels.

"We don't want and we don't need a single European state," Ancram said. "Nor do the peoples of the rest of Europe. Over the next few months, we will campaign against the constitution fiercely and unremittingly... We will fight it tooth and nail."

Intense negotiations between the 15 current and 10 future EU member states opened last Friday and Saturday at a special EU summit in Rome, and the Italian EU presidency hopes to nail down a consensus by December.

It must subsequently be ratified by all 25 nations, about six of which will be holding referendums.

The Conservatives played the euroskeptic card aggressively during the 2001 general election -- only to lose a second straight time to the pro-EU Blair and his Labour party.