The Referendum Motion
I was part of the team which secured the motion in the Commons on Monday evening regarding holding a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union and, naturally, supported the motion when the vote came.
I am 53 years old and, as a citizen, have never been given the opportunity to vote on whether or not I wish the UK be a member of the European Union. Neither has anyone else my age or younger been asked, in spite of the fact that we pay huge taxes to the EU and have the EU interfere in our lives every single minute of every day. That has to be wrong.
I have received many emails, letters, telephone calls and face to face messages calling on me to support this motion recently. And over my 14 years as the Member of Parliament for Tewkesbury, I have been constantly asked to do all I can to try to get us out of the mess called the EU. In addition, over 100,000 people signed the e-petition, a system set up by this government, calling for this debate to be held. My actions in securing and voting for this motion reflected those stated opinions.
There were those during the debate, and beforehand, who said that, with all the EU’s problems at the moment, now isn’t the right time to hold a referendum. I agree. But the motion only proposed that a Bill be introduced in the Commons during the next session of Parliament, which begins next May, and any referendum held would come some time after that. So the “now isn’t the right time” argument was a cop out.
There were also those who argued in the debate that the EU was good and those who argued that it was bad, but that wasn’t really what the debate should have been about. Monday’s motion called for the people of this country to pass their judgement on whether the EU was good or bad, and whether we should stay in it, come out of it or renegotiate our position within it. So again, the good or bad argument was a smokescreen as well – the motion was about given people their say.
When Gordon Brown came to power in 2007 he said that he wanted to change the way Parliament worked and to connect with the people more. David Cameron followed that theme when he became Prime Minister and, unlike Mr Brown, he has taken positive steps to bring that about. But it must be understood that people feel disconnected with Parliament because of the fact that they feel powerless to change anything, and that is in large part because of the EU.
I have sat on the European Scrutiny Committee and have seen the number of regulations, directives and other measures which come from the EU literally every day. On one occasion, that Committee dealt with 65 items in just 2 minutes. Yes, 65 items in 2 minutes – that is the scale of the problem. No wonder people are concerned.
They are more than concerned, though, they feel, and are, disenfranchised. Decisions are taken in the EU by unelected Commissioners and officials. The veto our Ministers once had has been eroded and we now have many measures passed by Qualified Majority Voting. This means that people from Greece, Italy and Spain take decisions which we ourselves don’t agree with but have to implement. That is not democracy.
No wonder people don’t feel it worth turning out to vote – I understand their position completely. But there is hope. We lost the vote last night but won the argument. A very high percentage of Conservative backbench MPs voted in favour of the motion and our views cannot be ignored. We are representing the interest of our constituents and, in the end, you will have your say. It’s just a pity that very few Labour or LibDem MPs voted for the motion. They will have their constituents to answer to for their actions.
Monday’s vote was not just about the motion as such, but it represented the start of a journey towards giving people their say. I’m determined that we will reach that end.
I am 53 years old and, as a citizen, have never been given the opportunity to vote on whether or not I wish the UK be a member of the European Union. Neither has anyone else my age or younger been asked, in spite of the fact that we pay huge taxes to the EU and have the EU interfere in our lives every single minute of every day. That has to be wrong.
I have received many emails, letters, telephone calls and face to face messages calling on me to support this motion recently. And over my 14 years as the Member of Parliament for Tewkesbury, I have been constantly asked to do all I can to try to get us out of the mess called the EU. In addition, over 100,000 people signed the e-petition, a system set up by this government, calling for this debate to be held. My actions in securing and voting for this motion reflected those stated opinions.
There were those during the debate, and beforehand, who said that, with all the EU’s problems at the moment, now isn’t the right time to hold a referendum. I agree. But the motion only proposed that a Bill be introduced in the Commons during the next session of Parliament, which begins next May, and any referendum held would come some time after that. So the “now isn’t the right time” argument was a cop out.
There were also those who argued in the debate that the EU was good and those who argued that it was bad, but that wasn’t really what the debate should have been about. Monday’s motion called for the people of this country to pass their judgement on whether the EU was good or bad, and whether we should stay in it, come out of it or renegotiate our position within it. So again, the good or bad argument was a smokescreen as well – the motion was about given people their say.
When Gordon Brown came to power in 2007 he said that he wanted to change the way Parliament worked and to connect with the people more. David Cameron followed that theme when he became Prime Minister and, unlike Mr Brown, he has taken positive steps to bring that about. But it must be understood that people feel disconnected with Parliament because of the fact that they feel powerless to change anything, and that is in large part because of the EU.
I have sat on the European Scrutiny Committee and have seen the number of regulations, directives and other measures which come from the EU literally every day. On one occasion, that Committee dealt with 65 items in just 2 minutes. Yes, 65 items in 2 minutes – that is the scale of the problem. No wonder people are concerned.
They are more than concerned, though, they feel, and are, disenfranchised. Decisions are taken in the EU by unelected Commissioners and officials. The veto our Ministers once had has been eroded and we now have many measures passed by Qualified Majority Voting. This means that people from Greece, Italy and Spain take decisions which we ourselves don’t agree with but have to implement. That is not democracy.
No wonder people don’t feel it worth turning out to vote – I understand their position completely. But there is hope. We lost the vote last night but won the argument. A very high percentage of Conservative backbench MPs voted in favour of the motion and our views cannot be ignored. We are representing the interest of our constituents and, in the end, you will have your say. It’s just a pity that very few Labour or LibDem MPs voted for the motion. They will have their constituents to answer to for their actions.
Monday’s vote was not just about the motion as such, but it represented the start of a journey towards giving people their say. I’m determined that we will reach that end.
Laurence Robertson M.P.
Member of Parliament for Tewkesbury
Member of Parliament for Tewkesbury
