The EU Referendum on the Relationship of Britain and Europe
I thought I would take this opportunity to write and outline my position with regard to the recent vote in the House of Commons about a potential referendum on our country’s membership of the European Union.
As your Member of Parliament, I take the view that you are entitled to know why I have voted as I did, which I must emphasise had nothing to do with the Government’s whipping operation. I voted against Monday’s Motion with a clear conscious for the simple reason that it is the wrong Motion at the wrong time. The probable result in the overly-broad referendum of the motion proposed would be that the British people would want to renegotiate our relationship with the EU, but what if the EU said no, what would we do then? There would be no mandate for withdrawal and a cause in which I believe would have been set back for a generation. The motion was drafted in a way as to make a pro-European outcome much more likely. By giving three options in a referendum, only one of which is pro-European, you are effectively splitting the Eurosceptic vote. If 33.5% were to vote to stay in the EU, but 33.2% voted to leave and 33.2% to renegotiate, we would remain in the EU, despite a clear Eurosceptic majority. A referendum on the EU is a once in a generation chance for change, and we have to get it right.
Nevertheless, I believe that the EU needs decisive action when dealing with the Greek debt and a recapitalisation of the banks. The government has made progress on protecting our sovereignty from the EU by introducing an Act which automatically gives people a referendum on any further powered moving between Westminster and Brussels. In addition, the Prime Minister secured thatBritainstays out of further Eurozone bailouts.
The Government had my support not because of those who oppose a referendum but for the reasons which I have given. Those who seek a referendum at the appropriate time based on a manifesto commitment will also continue to have my support, both because I believe that no one has ever been asked about the major constitutional change the issue represents and because I believe that wherever you are on the EU debate you cannot in all decency deprive the British people of their democratic right to be consulted on a major constitutional issue. Hence, I strongly feel that we will need a referendum on our membership of the European Union in due course as the majority of the British people want to return powers fromBrusselstoWestminster. However in view of the present economic crisis on the Continent I did not think that voting for this motion now would be in the best interests ofBritain’s economy.
(Published in the Wokingham Times, November 2011)