British High Court: EU referendum an "arguable case"

A millionaire businessman and major donor for the Conservative party is challenging British PM Gordon Brown for not giving the UK the possibility to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Stuart Wheeler, 73, won on May 2 his battle to challenge the government's decision after it had promised a referendum on the EU constitution.

He claimed that there was no material difference between the late constitution and the reformed treaty and therefore the government should keep its promise to hold a referendum.

He said in his website:"The Labour Party, as well as the other two main parties, made an unambiguous promise that they would call one. They should keep that promise. The Treaty is immensely important and so, irrespective of whether people think it should be ratified or not, they should be allowed a vote on it."

In his judgement at the High Court Mr Justice Owen decided that permission to apply for judicial review should be granted because the case is "arguable". The hearing will take place on 9 and 10 June.

Since last December, the Labour government insisted that the Lisbon Treaty is not the same as the Constitutional Treaty. In the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website (FCO), it stated that "EU’s 27 leaders have agreed that the constitutional concept has been abandoned."

It said: "There are substantial differences between the two Treaties, in form and in content. The Constitutional Treaty would have replaced all the existing Treaties and effectively re-founded the EU. The Lisbon Treaty takes the same approach as all previous amending Treaties. It amends the existing Treaties which Parliament has ratified and will not have constitutional characteristics."