Exposed: Labour and Tories same side of the coin

Ken Clarke: We won't tear up the Lisbon Treaty if Ireland votes yes before election

The revised EU constitution will not be torn up if it has been implemented by the time the Tories win power, Kenneth Clarke declared yesterday.

The Conservative business spokesman angered Eurosceptics in his party by insisting that the Lisbon Treaty would survive if all 27 member states succeed in forcing it into law before the next election.

The intervention of Mr Clarke, who has always been fervently supportive of the EU, appeared to rule out categorically the possibility of a referendum on the treaty if it has already been ratified when the Tories win power.

The party has pledged to hold one if the ratification process is not complete across all 27 member states, but been deliberately vague about what it would do if it is concluded.

Mr Clarke's remarks enraged Eurosceptics who believe Mr Cameron should go ahead with a vote and then tear up the treaty even if it means having to leave the EU.

Gordon Brown has ditched Labour's manifesto promise from the last election to hold a referendum seeking public approval. He insists that the constitutional element of the treaty has been abandoned, making a vote unnecessary.

But most other EU leaders admit that it is virtually the same as the original version, which was rejected by voters in France and Holland in 2005. Ireland voted against the latest version last year.

The blueprint will create the first full-time EU president and foreign affairs chief, give the EU its own legal personality like a nation state, and do away with Britain's right to reject EU proposals in more than 40 policy areas.

It appears increasingly likely the Lisbon Treaty will be implemented before the next election, with the Irish expected to vote 'yes' in a rerun referendum this autumn.

Yesterday Mr Clarke told BBC1's The Politics Show: 'If the Irish referendum endorses the treaty and ratification comes into effect, then our settled policy is quite clear that the treaty will not be reopened.'

But he added: 'I think we will want to open negotiations with the EU about a return of some responsibilities, particularly in employment law, to individual nation states.'

Mr Clarke pointedly said he did not think 'anybody in Europe, including me, is in the mood for any more tedious debates about treaties, which have gone on for far too long'.

But Eurosceptic Tory MP Bill Cash said: 'It appears Kenneth Clarke has reinvented unilaterally Conservative Party policy on Europe. It is essential we have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty irrespective of the Irish vote, and this is supported by a very substantial number of Conservative MPs.'

UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said: 'Ken Clarke has let the cat out of the bag. The Conservatives have no intention of holding a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.'

A Tory spokesman said: 'There is no change to Conservative policy. As Ken Clarke explained, if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified and in force across the EU by the time of the election of a Conservative government, we have always made clear that we would not let matters rest there.

'We would regard political integration as having gone too far. We have consistently made clear, for example, that the return of social and employment legislation to UK control would be a major goal for a Conservative government.'