The government has tried to pretend that the new EU treaty will be a minimalist affair, a "slimline" treaty, in complete contrast to the thick, 475 page, volume of the constitution.

There have even been attempts to misrepresent the 16 page IGC mandate as itself being more or less the new treaty, rather than just a set of brief instructions for drawing it up.

Now it emerges that the first draft of the new treaty runs to 277 pages. This treaty would amend, but unlike the rejected constitution not entirely repeal, the present treaties, which in their consolidated form run to 331 pages.

Add the present treaties and the amending treaty together, consolidate into one document, and what would that come to? Why, a thick volume, similar in size to the constitution.

Which ties in with the recent statement by the Spanish Foreign Minister that "98 per cent of the content, of what we consider the substance of the Constitutional Treaty, is to be found in the future EU Treaty. The wrapping has been changed, but not the content."

We were promised a referendum on that Constitutional Treaty, and there is no way that Labour MPs can escape their manifesto pledge just because its wrapping has now been changed.

MURIEL PARSONS, Berkshire chairman, Campaign for an Independent Britain.