Blair tries to reign in rebels

Tony Blair refused a free vote on the EU constitution today as he moved to whip Labour rebels behind the treaty.

Downing Street said ministers will not be allowed to vote against the controversial agreement while Labour aides made clear the ruling will also apply to backbenchers.

It means any Labour MP will be liable to disciplinary proceedings if he or she opposes the constitution when it comes before the Commons for ratification.

Mr Blair's move came as some two dozen backbenchers gathered to launch a new group, Labour Against A Superstate (LAAS), to campaign against the treaty. Former Sports minister Kate Hoey warned the attempt to impose discipline would fail. "It won't make any difference," she said.

In the last big European referendum in 1975, the then-premier Harold Wilson allowed a free vote to avoid the Labour Party splitting. But a Downing Street spokesman said today: "The Government approaches this as a Government matter."

Implying that rebels were either ignorant or " irrational", he added: "The PM hopes that as the process goes through people will come to a better and more rational assessment of the facts."

The move came as Mr Blair prepared to make a Commons statement defending the deal he agreed in Brussels against charges that he had signed up to a fully fledged European-superstate. He was expected to confirm the nationwide referendum will be delayed until 2006 to give ministers more time to persuade the British people. The official campaign will last 10 weeks, longer than is usually set aside for a general election.

The delay was seized upon by Tory leader Michael Howard as a sign the Government was " r u n n i n g scared" from the tide of anti-EU feeling revealed by last week's European elections.

Up to 30 Labour rebels were meeting this evening to agree their campaign strategy. LAAS founder Ian Davidson, said: "If we are going to have a two-year campaign [for the constitution] we will respond vigorously to any initiatives by the Yes campaign."

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dismissed the group, saying: "We are all against a superstate."

But Mr Blair, in his first interview after the Brussels summit, said the campaign would be a battle between "reality and myth".

He claimed voters would be won round once they were told the truth about the deal. "If you actually have a debate about the reality then people will say, 'Well what's wrong with that? Why aren't we being part of that?'" A weekend poll showed opposition to the constitution running at more than two to one. The YouGov survey said 49 per cent were against compared with 23 per cent in favour.

Mr Blair said it also revealed most people were ignorant of the facts. It showed 58 per cent thought Britain would lose control of asylum policy; 66 per cent believed the nation would lose its seat on the UN Security Council, or were unsure the seat was safe; and half thought Brussels would be able to set tax rates. All of these were myths, Mr Blair said.

In another indication that supporters of the constitution were beginning to organise a counter-attack, Gordon Brown was attacked for portraying the rest of Europe as living on "food parcels" today.

In a a riposte to the Chancellor's Mansion House speech last Wednesday, European Commissioner Chris Patten suggested Mr Brown was undermining the Government's own case for a European constitution.

He criticised ministers for lacklustre support for the EU but singled out Mr Brown's "extremely negative speeches about Europe". He said: "That feeds the myth that we are somehow completely different from or better than our European counterparts."