Gordon Brown 'ashamed' to sign Lisbon Treaty, say Tories - Times Online

Gordon Brown will travel to Portugal to sign the reworked European Union constitutional treaty, but he will not attend the actual signing ceremony for the document, it was confirmed today in a decision that the former Tory leader William Hague called a "ridiculous fudge".

The Prime Minister's attendance at the signing of the controversial EU Reform Treaty in Lisbon on Thursday had been in doubt for several weeks because of a clash in his schedule.

Mr Brown was due to make his first appearance before the Commons Liaison Committee, a heavyweight group of senior backbench MPs, at exactly the same time as the Treaty of Lisbon is being signed by the other 26 EU leaders. "The Liaison Committee must come first," an aide said.

Mr Brown would have faced little criticism at home if he did miss the signing of the Treaty, which replaced the failed EU constitution dumped after its rejection by French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005.