PENDLE MP Gordon Prentice has claimed that those pressing for a referendum on a new EU treaty are wrong to say it is a new constitution for the European Union.

He said: "The treaty will be put before Parliament in the usual way and will be debated, line by line, in exactly the same way as all previous amendments to the treaties setting up and regulating the business and powers of the European Union.

"Some of the people clamouring for a referendum want out of the EU completely. It would be more honest of them to say as much."

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown says the treaty does not amount to a new constitution for the European Union.

The text of the treaty, as agreed by leaders of EU member states, will then be ratified by each EU country according to their own constitutional conventions.

Only Ireland will have a referendum.