FEARS over immigration and Turkey’s prospective membership of the European Union have combined with a growing Euroscepticism to propel the “no” camp into a convincing lead in the campaign for the Dutch referendum on the European constitution.

Successive polls have shown that the “no” vote is in the lead, but a survey of 16,000 people for Dutch television released yesterday suggested that the gap has widened sharply, with opponents of the constitution outnumbering supporters by almost three to one. It showed that the “no” vote rose from 53 per cent in April to 60 per cent, while the “yes” vote fell from 24 per cent to 21 per cent. The Netherlands was a founding member of the EU.

Jan Peter Balkenende, the Prime Minister, trying to avoid an embarrassing defeat, took to the television studios to plead with his people to vote “yes” in the referendum on June 1 — three days after the French vote. He said that rejecting the constitution would “harm the reputation of the Netherlands internationally”.

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