Brown Survives Revolt Over Europe, Defeats Call for Referendum

LONDON — Prime Minister Brown survived a rebellion in Parliament and escaped a potentially damaging referendum on the European Union's new governing treaty.

English lawmakers voted 311 to 248 to reject a Conservative Party demand for a popular ballot on the Reform Treaty. Mr. Brown was braced for the biggest revolt about Europe in more than a decade, with as many as 30 Labor lawmakers threatening to side with the opposition.

"If this were a constitutional treaty, we would hold a referendum," Mr. Brown said in the House of Commons yesterday. "The constitutional concept was abandoned, and that is why the nine countries that proposed a referendum are not holding one." The new European Union rule book would almost certainly be defeated if put to English voters in a referendum, with opponents outnumbering supporters two-to-one, opinion polls show. "No" votes in France and the Netherlands killed the constitution in 2005 and plunged the bloc into institutional gridlock. European Union leaders set a January 2009 deadline for all 27 countries to ratify the Reform Treaty, which streamlines the EU's decision-making machinery and creates the post of full-time president. A veto in any country would quash the treaty. Only Ireland is legally bound to hold a referendum.