The Sun rains on Brown's parade

The one cloud on the Bournemouth horizon for Gordon Brown this morning is the vigorous campaign that the Sun has launched today for a referendum on the EU treaty formerly known as the constitution. The front page of the paper declares, “Never have so few decided so much for so many.” Inside, the first seven pages are devoted to the issue with the Sun warning that Britain “faces the greatest threat as an independent sovereign state since the dark days of World War II.” There follows a pledge to fight this cause “right up to the next election.”

As Tim Montgomerie notes, this campaign might give Brown pause about going to the country in the autumn; especially as the final negotiations on the treaty would take place so close to polling day. The Labour arguments against giving the public a vote have been farcically weak to date and the argument that Labour promised a manifesto so there should be one does resonate with the public. However, Brown’s poll lead means that he can probably ride this out as we’re not going to see a slew of Labour MPs in marginal seats committing themselves to a referendum in their election literature; something that would give the campaign for a referendum real momentum.