Lib Dem threat to PM over European convention

Charles Kennedy has issued a thinly-veiled threat to the Prime Minister that he may lose his support in a euro referendum campaign if he excludes Liberal Democrats from a powerful new body that will shape the future of the European Union.

The Liberal Democrat leader has written to Tony Blair to express his dismay that Downing Street is planning to give places on the special steering committee – which includes MPs and MEPs from all EU member states – to a Labour and a Tory candidate only.

The letter is likely to unsettle those at Downing Street who have hitherto taken Liberal Democrat backing in a referendum for granted. Mr Kennedy has been supportive over Europe, while attacking the Government on transport, health and education.

Mr Kennedy makes clear that, as the price for their continuing support, the Liberal Democrats expect to be represented on the influential European convention.

Each parliament in the EU will have two delegates on the powerful body that was announced at the recent Laeken European summit in Brussels. Peter Mandelson and David Miliband, the former head of the Number 10 policy unit, are being considered as Labour representatives.

The Liberal Democrats are the most consistently pro-European of the major parties in Britain and believe they have strong candidates to sit on the convention, such as Lord Russell-Johnston, the former MP and retiring chairman of the Council of Europe, Menzies Campbell MP, the respected foreign affairs spokesman, and Malcolm Bruce, the party's environment spokesman.

The convention will be chaired by Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president. He plans to draw up proposals to reform decision-making during a review of the EU's governing treaties in 2004.