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Abandon treaty, Eurosceptics tell Brown in wake of Irish EU vote John Coleman Eurosceptics pronounced the controversial Lisbon treaty dead today as it appeared to have been thrown out by voters in Ireland. Gordon Brown faced demands to halt the process of ratifying the treaty in the UK in the wake of the Irish referendum result. Critics insisted a "no" vote in Ireland would represent the same fatal blow to the Lisbon treaty as was dealt to the EU constitution, its forerunner, by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
(Article continues below) Downing Street declined to comment on reports that the prime minister had called the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to assure him that British ratification would continue. The House of Lords this week cleared the way for parliament to ratify the treaty when it rejected a Conservative bid to force a referendum. The shadow work and pensions secretary, Chris Grayling, said that the Irish referendum marked a "turning point" and urged Brown to halt the treaty's progress through parliament. "Clearly my view and the view of my colleagues is that the treaty should now be abandoned, that Brussels should go back to the drawing board and think more clearly about what the people of Europe really want," he said in a prerecorded interview for GMTV's Sunday programme. Grayling said that the referendum had killed off the treaty, adding: "It's certainly the case Gordon Brown should abandon the bill that's coming through the Lords at the moment and should commit to holding a treaty for the people in this country." Grayling rejected suggestions that raising the issue of Europe could be counterproductive to the Tories because it was an issue that divided the party. David Heathcoat-Amory, a prominent Eurosceptic Tory MP, also insisted that the government must "go back to the drawing board" and respect the voters of Holland, France and Ireland. "Of course [ratification] must be halted," Heathcoat-Amory told BBC Radio 4's The World At One. "The bill before the British parliament must be withdrawn because under the European Union's own laws this cannot proceed now. The Lisbon treaty is dead. "When the French and Dutch voted 'no' in 2005 the British government did halt that particular bill. "If they don't do the same this time it'll be quite clearly because they want to put pressure on Ireland and the people of Ireland to change their mind." Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, said: "As a pro-European there must be a very serious question mark over the future of the Lisbon treaty. Clearly the Irish government's got to go to the forthcoming EU summit and talk to EU partners, but we need all the member states to ratify, so I don't think there should be backroom deals." Open Europe, a thinktank which opposes the treaty, warned Brown that it would be "electoral suicide" to proceed with ratification without regard for the views of the public. Ministers have steadfastly refused to grant a British referendum on the treaty, despite promising to grant one on the now-defunct constitution. They say that the two documents are substantially different, and that a plebiscite on the treaty is unnecessary, but Eurosceptics insist that they are the same in all but name. Open Europe's director, Neil O'Brien, said: "This is a resounding victory on behalf of ordinary people across Europe over an out-of-touch and arrogant political elite. "If supporters of the EU constitution cannot even win in Ireland - one of the most pro-EU countries in Europe - it is clear that their vision for the future of Europe is now discredited in a most fundamental way.
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