Brown Tries It On
DAILY MAIL: Something very odd has been going on in Britain this August. Ever more people - including, we are told, more than 100 of his own MPs - have been waking up to the realisation that our Prime Minister Gordon Brown is attempting to get away with one of the most shameless and fraudulent gambles in our political history.

It was bad enough that his fellow European leaders should have conspired to smuggle the rejected EU constitution back onto their political agenda simply by giving it a different name: the "Reform Treaty".

At least most of them have been honest enough to admit that its contents are essentially the same as those of the constitution which was chucked out by the French and Dutch voters in 2005.

But in Mr Brown's case, he has been guilty of a double deception. He has tried to pretend that the new treaty is completely different from the old constitution - and he has done so because he hopes it will let him off the hook of that manifesto promise on which he and the Labour Government were elected in 2005: to hold a referendum.

Poll after poll in recent weeks has shown overwhelming majorities in favour of a referendum. Most of our newspapers are demanding a referendum. David Cameron and the Tory Party are demanding a referendum.

Even many of his own MPs are now asking that he honours that promise of a referendum on which they were elected - with the support of trade unions that sponsor no fewer than 12 members of his own Cabinet.

Yet Mr Brown is gambling that he can break that promise for one simple reason - because he thinks he can get away with it. The EU constitution is one of the biggest political gambles Mr Brown could make (more) By Christopher Booker

Mark Alexander

Come Off It Miliband! This Is Supposed To Be A Democracy!
THE TELEGRAPH: The Government today insisted there would be no referendum on the new EU treaty, despite revelations in the Daily Telegraph that 120 Labour MPs now want a public vote.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said this morning that the treaty was different in "absolute essence" from the defunct European constitution, so the Government was not obliged to follow through on its manifesto pledge to hold a referendum.

"We have not got a European constitution," Mr Miliband told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Twenty-seven European heads of government all signed a document in June, after nearly two years of negotiation, saying the constitutional concept has been abandoned."

He added: "I think that as Parliament gets to grips with the reform treaty that comes out, as they look line by line, they will see first that it is good for Britain, second that it is very different from the constitution in absolute essence, and third that the red lines, the key national interests in foreign policy and other areas of the UK have been protected."

Mr Miliband was responding to revelations in today's Daily Telegraph that more than 120 Labour MPs, including several senior ministers, want a referendum on the new EU reform treaty. Government defies rebels on EU referendum (more) By Toby Helm

Mark Alexander