30/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - If the UK government were to decide not to hold a referendum on the future 'amending treaty' of the European union (an option favoured by current UK prime minister Gordon Brown and also by former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who negotiated the mandate for the Intergovernmental Conference on behalf of his country), the British Tories might decide to back the idea of a 'private' referendum. The think tank Open Europe (http://www.openeurope.org.uk ), set up by British business leaders to promote the idea of and EU based on flexible economic and trade cooperation, might organise such a referendum. Shadow foreign secretary William Hague is quoted by the Press Association as commenting that such a private referendum would be a good idea. Meanwhile, even Labour MPs are calling for a referendum on the new treaty due to be approved by the EU27 on 19 October 2007. In the Sunday Telegraph, former MEP and former Labour minister Gisela Stuart regretted that one of Tony Blair's last moves as prime minister had been to renege on the promise to hold a referendum on the new EU treaty. She said it was incredible that the first thing Gordon Brown did was prime minister was to do the same. The Sunday Telegraph reports that up to 40 Labour MPs could join the Tories' call for a referendum in the United Kingdom. (hb)