Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat Leader, responding to the Prime Minister's statement in the House of Commons, welcomed a referendum on the European constitution. He said:
"I welcome today's confirmation from the Prime Minister that there will be a referendum of the British People on the proposed European constitution. We welcome that, whatever the motives were that led the Prime Minister to this overdue decision.
"I hope the coordination of the European referendum campaign will be more slick and polished than was the co-ordination that led to today's announcement.
"The referendum must be based on an unloaded, unbiased question - one which will be subject to confirmation by the Electoral Commission."
One the issue of how the campaign would be run Mr Kennedy said:
"One of the great missed opportunities of recent years is that euro-sceptics have been allowed far too much of the running. The quicker pro-European forces are able to coordinate and make the positive case based on the facts, the better that will be.
"If this referendum campaign was to be hatched, controlled and spun from Downing Street...that would not persuade the British public of the desired outcome."
On the future of the EU, Mr Kennedy said:
"The European Union action should be limited to specific objectives, which make sense in the context of nation states. And there should be more decentralisation to local communities across Europe."
He finished by saying that:
"This is surely an historic opportunity to at last settle an issue that has bedevilled two generations of British politics. When it comes to Britain's future in Europe, it will come down to those of us to those who want to live and let live and those who will be exposed as wanting to live and then let die."
ENDS
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