Ministers fear EU treaty revolt

The Bill ratifying the treaty, signed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Lisbon last October, begins its passage through Parliament with its Commons second reading debate.

Although the rebellion by Labour MPs is likely to be small - and certainly not enough to threaten the Government's majority - rebels are warning that ministers could face bigger and more dangerous revolts as the Bill progresses.

The Tories and Labour opponents of the Bill are demanding a referendum on the treaty which, they argue, is virtually unchanged from the now-abandoned EU constitution.

The Government had promised in Labour's general election manifesto to put the constitution to a popular vote, however ministers argue that is no longer necessary because, they say, the treaty is actually a very different document.

The critics on Sunday received powerful support for their claims after the Labour-dominated Commons Foreign Affairs Committee concluded that there was "no material difference" between the treaty and the foreign policy aspects of the constitution.

The committee's report echoed the earlier findings of the Commons European Scrutiny Committee that the treaty and the constitution were "substantially equivalent".

Leading Labour Eurosceptic Ian Davidson warned at the weekend that the rebels would build up the pressure as the Bill progressed through the House.

Mr Brown has deliberately chosen to given the Bill as much Commons exposure as possible - taking the line-by-line committee stage on the floor of the Commons -in an attempt to expose differences within the Tory Party.

However, Mr Davidson claimed that a large number of Labour MPs were unhappy at the way Tony Blair negotiated the treaty in the final days of his premiership, now that it had emerged that Mr Blair was in the running to become the new President of Europe - a post created by the treaty.