The least-noticed result of the EU referendum row has been Gordon Brown’s emergence as an unqualified, strong pro-European. If Tony Blair had watched Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, which I am sure he did not, he would have been delighted by Mr Brown’s stance, even if wishing it had been expressed earlier.

Mr Brown was unequivocal in emphasising the benefits of EU membership. He talked about Britain taking the lead on the environment, international development, globalisation and security. Of course Mr Brown would claim to have been a longstanding pro-European, but his tone has changed. As Chancellor he was often cautious about European proposals coming out of 10 Downing Street – for instance holding up the EU Budget deal in 2005.

The shift in approach is partly about positioning, to paint the Conservatives as wreckers who are putting British membership of the EU at risk. If, and when, the Lisbon treaty is ratified throughout the EU, around the end of this year, Labour will challenge the Tories to say what they would do then.

Hence Mr Brown’s taunts to David Cameron yesterday about appeasing Tory Eurosceptics, instead of standing up to them, and of “not moving to the centre of Europe instead of being left at the margins of Europe”.

This is partly in order to outflank the Tories’ most effective line, repeated yesterday by William Hague, about “an argument that goes to the heart of trust in politics and faith in political institutions”. The change in tone is also part of his embrace of new Labour, Blairism without Blair, which has been increasingly visible in recent weeks.

This is all part of phase two of the Brown premiership after the arrival of Jeremy Heywood to revamp the official side, and Stephen Carter on the political side. The hand of Mr Carter has been seen in Mr Brown’s more informal, and effective, style in his speech to Labour’s spring conference last Saturday and in other public appearances.

Mr Brown has become enthusiastic about some Blairite reforms, such as the David Freud welfare-to-work package, as well as his earlier backing for expanding the academies programme. Before last summer’s handover, the Brown Treasury had expressed reservations about both, though Mr Brown has insisted that he has always been a reformer. Hardcore Blairites are now positive about the new Brown, if still wondering about the coherence of his approach. Like so much else in the Government at present, decision-making has been simplified by the absence of the Blair/Brown rivalry and the earlier sense among the Blairites that the Brown team resisted some of their ideas because they were “not invented here”.

But what will this shift in rhetoric on Europe mean in practice? Mr Brown’s theme, set out in a White Paper and speech in January, is “global Europe”, making it more outward-looking, flexible and competitive. Some in Brussels are suspicious about Mr Brown’s plans in view of his previous doubts. Mr Brown believes that once the treaty is out of the way, he can make Europe a positive electoral issue for Labour – though that will depend on whether he can squash the “trust” attacks.

Times Recommends

• Snow brings out the inner Tory in all of us
• Hail, Britain’s Indiana Jones of the Amazon
• Hewitt and Hoon – two rabbits, one hat