Blair: 'let battle be joined'

Tony Blair ordered a "once and for all" battle over Britain's place in Europe today as he called a referendum on the EU constitution.

Making the biggest U-turn of his career, the Prime Minister said it was necessary to "confront head-on" those who want Britain to leave the European Union.

"Let the issue be put," he told MPs amid rowdy scenes in the Commons. "Let the battle be joined."

Mr Blair confirmed the first national referendum since 1975 will be held before he signs up to the constitution.

His hastily organised statement left open the timing, but sources made clear it will be months after the general election and probably not until spring 2006. "The question will be on the treaty but the implicationsgo far wider, as I believe we all know," he said. "It is time to resolve once and for all whether this country, Britain, wants to be at the centre and heart of European decision making or not."

Mr Blair's statement was greeted with derision from the Conservative benches. Tory leader Michael Howard called him "the Grand Old Duke of Spin" who had "marched Labour MPs up to the top of the hill and down again".

Mr Blair defended his decision - taken after pressure from Gordon Brown and Jack Straw - on the grounds that "myths" about Europe and its planned constitution were so widespread that a full and wide-ranging debate was needed.

He ran through a catalogue, about Brussels dictating the shape of bananas to Britain being banned from fighting a repeat of the Falklands War.

"All of it nonsense," said Mr Blair. "Myth designed to distance people's understanding of what Europe is and loosen this country's belief in its place in Europe.

"It has been an unrelenting but, I have to accept, partially at least, successful campaign to persuade Britain that Europe is a conspiracy aimed at us rather than a partnership designed for us," he added. "It is right to confront this campaign head-on."

Mr Blair promised that the exact question would be confined to whether or not people back the constitution.

But his statement made clear his strategy is to widen the debate into the whole question of whether the Government should be trusted on Europe. Mr Howard accused him of a "gross distortion" by implying the opponents of the document wanted secretly to pull out of the EU.

In a series of withering put-downs, he mocked Mr Blair's statement. "He couldn't actually bring himself to utter the word referendum," the Tory leader said. "Six months ago the Prime Minister stood before his party conference.

"He told them ... 'I can only go one way. I've not got a reverse gear'. Today, you could hear the gears grinding as he came before us. Who will ever trust him again?"

Mr Howard said there was "not a word of explanation" as to why Mr Blair had changed his mind.

Mr Blair claimed that as the debate continued "the choice would become very clear" that either Britain fulfilled its "destiny" at the centre of Europe or it would be sidelined by the Eurosceptics and stripped of influence.