Unions call for Labour to offer EU referendum

General secretary of the GMB, Paul Kenny, has said that Labour should commit to having a referendum on the EU.

Although Kenny is in favour of remaining in the EU, he told the Financial Times (£):

“This is now not the European Union we signed up for. There has been a fundamental change. A referendum wouldn’t worry me, people should hear the argument about Europe and put it on the table . . . Labour should offer a referendum on Europe.”

He went on to say:

“I think we should or we’ll get hurt if we don’t. Maybe we should have had a vote before the signing of the Lisbon treaty . . . it’s time to think about what the public’s views on Europe are.”

Kenny’s comments come after Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, also said he thought offering a referendum could be the difference between winning and losing the election:

“In a general election where Ukip will be saying that everything that is wrong in the world is because of Europe and the Tories are offering a referendum, we think for Labour not to offer a referendum may put Ed in a difficult position. He is going to be portrayed as somebody who is afraid of asking the British people their views and we think that is tactically dangerous for him.”

But earlier in the year, Miliband said Labour wouldn’t back an EU referendum unless there’s a significant transfer of power to Brussels.

We’ll let you know if there’s any further developments on the topic…