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British poll says no to EU constitution
by
Saturday 29 January 2005 8:02 AM GMT

British voters have rejected the EU consitution in recent polls

British voters will reject the European Union constitution by nearly two 
to one in a referendum on the document, a newspaper poll has revealed.

A YouGov poll in Saturday's The Daily Telegraph indicated that 45% of 
voters would currently say no to the question set by Prime Minister Tony 
Blair's Labour government.



Blair's government, which backs the constitution, said the exact wording 
of the question to be submitted would be: "Should the United Kingdom 
approve the treaty establishing a constitution for the European Union?"



Another survey published on Saturday put the ''no'' vote as high as 56%.



The newspaper's online survey of 1943 adults revealed that 24% would say 
yes, while 25% remained undecided on the EU document. A further 7% said 
they would not vote.



Blow to Blair



The Sun newspaper cited a separate poll by website MoneySavingExpert.com 
which revealed 56% would reject the constitution with 24% in favour.



Blair's Labour government is in
favour of the EU constitution
The daily said the findings would be a blow to Blair and that ministers 
fear time was running out to turn the tide towards the constitution.



Michael Ancram, foreign affairs spokesman for the main opposition 
Conservative party, which is against the treaty, told The Daily 
Telegraph: "This underlines the very real and deserved mistrust of the 
British people for this attempt to punch them into a European super state."

But Simon Hughes, president of the opposition Liberal Democrats, which 
favours the constitution, was adamant victory was still possible.

"The more public debate there is, the more the pro-Europeans will 
benefit," he said.

"There is obviously a lot of work to be done, but victory for the Yes 
campaign is achievable."

Thumbs down

The treaty was signed by all 25 current EU members in Rome on 29 October 
last year and is set to come into force in November 2006, provided it is 
ratified by all member states, several of which will hold a referendum.

"There is obviously a lot of work to be done, but victory for the Yes 
campaign is achievable"

Simon Hughes,
Liberal Democrats president
According to a Eurobarometer poll on Friday, only 11% of EU citizens 
said they were familiar with the constitution, while 56% said they knew 
little and 33% declared they had never heard of it.

Eurobarometer's poll found only 20% of Britons in favour and 30% 
against, making Britain the only EU state where more people give the 
constitution a thumbs-down than those who support it.


You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/96DC5AFB-E7A8-4989-A7FC-488EDB2D7F79.htm