EU Summit - Blair threatens Free Market
Tony Blair will today reject Tory calls in the Commons to stage a referendum on the proposals agreed by EU leaders on Saturday. In his last full statement to the Commons, Mr Blair will claim Britain achieved all its aims at the summit. The Prime Minister has given ground on some aspects of the fourth of his four red lines, a foreign policy in which a foreign affairs 'high representative' will have access to the Commission's civil servants. Mr Brown and Mr Blair reportedly had several last-minute telephone conversations after the chancellor expressed his unhappiness at a concession to France which had removed a treaty objective of "free and undistorted competition".