MPs join treaty referendum campaign

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Three Labour former ministers united with opposition MPs to urge the Prime Minister to honour the commitment in Labour's 2005 general election manifesto to hold a referendum.

Launching the nationwide 'I Want A Referendum Campaign' outside Parliament, they warned that a failure to give the public a say would erode democracy and increase voter cynicism.

The drive unites Eurosceptic and pro-European MPs who insist it is not a campaign for a "no" vote or a poll on whether the UK should remain in the EU.

The campaign is chaired by Derek Scott, vice-chairman of the Eurosceptic Open Europe group and Tony Blair's former economic adviser,

Labour former minister Kate Hoey said: "We all feel particularly strongly about a referendum because in all our party manifestos it was clear that we would have a referendum. We need the referendum which is why it is very important that this is an all-party campaign and will grow from strength to strength."

Senior Conservative MP David Heathcoat-Amory, a former Foreign Office minister, said: "We all have very different political opinions about the future of the country, but we all agree that people should be given a choice.

"Democracy drains away when all the decisions that ought to be made here in Parliament are made for us by people we don't elect and can't remove. So we are all coming together for democracy and the supreme democracy is giving people a choice about how they wish to be governed."

Speaking ahead of the launch, the Prime Minister's spokesman said: "Our position is very well known and hasn't changed."