Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president who is drawing up the blueprint for the future of Europe, waded into controversial waters yesterday on the eve of the publication of the draft document, by supporting calls for Britain to hold a referendum on the constitution.
In an interview that otherwise indicated his intense desire to accommodate Tony Blair's demands, the chairman of the convention on the future of Europe insisted he would be delighted if the government held the referendum being demanded by the Conservatives and the rightwing press.
Conceding it was a British issue, he added: "We are not demanding that there will be a referendum - but we will be very pleased."
His support - which came as he revealed that plans for tax harmonisation were now being dropped, following intense negotiations last week with Mr Blair - was seized on by the Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, who reiterated his call for a referendum.
Describing the constitution as a "huge change to the way in which the British people will be governed", Mr Duncan Smith chided the government for failing to hold a referendum.
"This is not just tidying up," he told BBC Radio 4's World This Weekend. "This is very major indeed ... and I simply say, don't trust the politicians on this, give the British people a real choice, give them a fair deal, let them have their say."
But the Welsh secretary, Peter Hain, Britain's negotiator on the European convention, reiterated the government's refusal to hold a referendum.
"We are the only government ... that's ever had a referendum on Europe, to stay in Europe, in 1975. We will call a referendum on the euro if we decide to go for it. The Tories have never had a referendum on anything," he added, before accusing the Conservatives of "hypocrisy".
Mr Hain stressed there were still 12 months of negotiations to run during which Britain would have a veto. "Let's just calm down and see how this goes," he said.
Mr Giscard's relaxed support for a referendum was backed by a highly emollient approach to the issue of the constitution, which is expected to be adopted in time for the admission of 10 new EU mem bers in May 2004. An inter-governmental conference will take the final decision which must be unanimous.
In a move which should do much to take the wind out of Eurosceptic sails, Mr Giscard laid out a list of areas in which Britain's demands had been recognised.
Stressing that he did not "ignore at all the British point of view or even the British sensitivity", he said that, following "frank" conversations with Mr Blair, the symbolically charged word "federal" would be taken out; tax harmonisation would be ruled out; and there would be no name change mentioning a "united Europe".
Mr Giscard also came to the aid of Mr Blair when he said during the interview on BBC1's Breakfast with Frost: "The idea of offending or destroying Britain is nonsense."
He added that he was "wary" of reducing any powers. "We need democratic legitimacy, and democratic legitimacy is enshrined in our national parliament. I am in favour of a very clear definition of the whole of the European institutions on the one side, and the national institutions on the other."