Court challenge seeks British referendum on EU treaty
(LONDON) - A wealthy British businessman launched a High Court challenge Monday on the government's refusal to hold a referendum on the European Union's key Lisbon reform treaty.
Days ahead of a crunch referendum in Ireland, Stuart Wheeler, 73, who made his fortune in spread-betting, said he believes the government has reneged on a promise to hold a vote on the treaty.
"The government promised a referendum and should keep its promise," Wheeler's lawyer Rabinder Singh told the court.
Former prime minister Tony Blair promised a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty -- which was then torpedoed by "no" votes in French and Dutch referendums in 2005.
That promise resulted in "legitimate expectation that a referendum would be held in respect of that treaty -- and by implication any treaty containing substantially similar terms, whatever its name," said Singh.
He said the evidence showed that the Lisbon Treaty and the Constitutional Treaty were all but the same, except in name.
Lawyer Jonathan Sumption, representing the prime minister's office, said that if the court accepted Singh's argument, judges would end up confronted with challenges on pledges "to reduce the burden of taxation, improve educational standards, half class sizes, double the size of the navy or whatever you would like".
Ministers were accountable before parliament and at general elections, Sumption said.
The "most extraordinary constitutional consequences" would arise if ministers became accountable for commitments in the courts, he added, describing Wheeler's case as "a direct challenge to the authority of parliamentary process".
The legal challenge in Britain comes as voters in Ireland prepare to have their say Thursday, the only country among the 27-member EU to hold a referendum on the treaty.
EU leaders are crossing their fingers, after a poll last Friday suggested that the "no" campaign could win in Ireland, threatening to plunge the bloc into new disarray three years after the French and Dutch referendums.
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