Britain:A seemingly confident Gordon Brown is gambling on a protracted parliamentary process to ratify the EU reform treaty, kill off referendum demands and eventually turn Britain's European question back on David Cameron's Conservative leadership.
During robust exchanges in the House of Commons yesterday Mr Cameron again accused the British prime minister of breaking Labour's manifesto commitment, "betraying people's trust" and refusing a popular vote because "he doesn't think he would win it".
However, Mr Brown anticipated eventual parliamentary approval for the treaty agreed at last week's Lisbon summit, warning Mr Cameron that the Conservatives would then have to decide whether to ask for a referendum after ratification and thus seek to renegotiate Britain's terms with the other member states.
Months of debate will follow the introduction of a treaty Bill early in the new year, with Mr Brown promising MPs all the time they need to examine the detail of the treaty against the "red lines" he maintains have the force of law to "defend the national interest".
The various protocols, opt-outs and opt-ins reflected in the treaty ensured that "nothing in the charter extends the ability of any court - European or national - to strike down UK law," Mr Brown assured MPs, while pledging that any moves to further extend qualified majority voting would require the prior approval of the House of Commons.
Asserting that the previous constitution and the "symbols of statehood" had been abandoned in the "amending treaty", Mr Brown insisted "there is no fundamental change taking place between the EU and Britain".
Having argued that it was for parliament to decide, however, Mr Brown conspicuously failed to answer when Mr Cameron asked if he would allow Labour MPs "a free vote" on the issue.
Ahead of yesterday's exchanges shadow foreign secretary William Hague had conceded the Conservatives were "unlikely" to defeat the government.
"If the Liberal Democrat MPs also break their solemn election commitment, as well as Labour MPs, then of course that makes it difficult for us to win a vote in the House of Commons," he said, while acknowledging the Tories would then have to decide whether to fight an eventual general election with a commitment to rescind the treaty.
In the Commons yesterday the acting Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, appeared to be keeping his party's options open, reviving the suggestion by former leader Sir Menzies Campbell that the time was right for a British referendum on continuing membership of the EU.
Acknowledging "a question of legitimacy", Mr Cable said the time had come for a consultation with the British people about the "cumulative effect" of successive EU treaties.
"Will you come out of your bunker and join the Liberal Democrats in supporting a referendum on British membership of the European Union and joining us in making the European case in a 'yes' vote?" Mr Cable asked Mr Brown.
The prime minister, however, preferred to note that the two leading candidates for the Lib Dem leadership, Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne, had agreed this was an amending treaty not requiring a referendum.