William Cash speech to the House of Commons on the Irish vote on 18 June

William Cash speech to the House of Commons on the Irish vote on 18 June

I do not know whether the lack of Members in the Chamber is any reflection on the circumstances relating to the Irish vote. However, speaking for myself, I am a very angry politician, because it is outrageous that, after an electorate have a referendum, the rest of Europe—I will not mince my words—gangs up on them, which is basically what is going on, even though that referendum was held under article 29 of the Irish constitution of 1937. That electorate were entitled to make a choice, and they did so by a substantial majority and on a 51 per cent. turnout, although some say that it was slightly higher.

The actions of the British Government now are unlike their actions on the European constitutional treaty. Under the former Prime Minister, when the Government realised that the French and Dutch were no longer prepared to go ahead with that treaty, they abandoned their Bill on it, even though that Bill had received its Second Reading. I tabled 400 amendments after Second Reading and I would have been interested to hear Ministers’ responses to them.

That Bill was dropped at the end of that Session and reintroduced in the second Session. Nothing was done about it—it never had a Second Reading: the Government recognised that the Bill could not proceed because the treaty could not be ratified. Now, we have a similar situation, despite the fact that the Bill in question has been through this House and through many of its stages in the upper House. Today, as I speak, the matter is being debated in the House of Lords on Third Reading, but the principle remains the same: there is no basis on which this can be legitimately validated.

I went to the High Court yesterday and made an application for judicial review. It has been turned down, and I do not complain about the fact that there is a difference of opinion on this issue, but what I do say is that there is no political basis—and, I believe, no legal basis—on which the Government can proceed to ratification.

I described to the Foreign Secretary the statement that he made the other day as disreputable, and I regard it as disreputable that the Irish people should be pushed around in this way. That is basically what is going on and I, for one, in common with many other people in this country, am baffled and angry. This is symptomatic of the overall attitude, the culture, of the European Union.

My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Sir Malcolm Rifkind) has argued for an ‘a la carte Europe. I am not quite sure what its core functions would be under his prescription.

I personally have always argued for a Europe of co-operation—as I put it, European trade, yes, European government, no. As I have argued for as long as I can remember, I do not believe that we should let the supremacy of this House be subsumed by the will of other nations where our vital national interests are involved. I am in favour of European co-operation and of European trade, but I do not believe that we should voluntarily so neuter ourselves as to preclude our passing enactments that are inconsistent with the European Union when it is in our vital national interests to do so.

I know that the leader of our own party, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron), has said repeatedly that we will repatriate powers in respect of economic competitiveness. I take him at his word, because it is absolutely essential and in our vital national interests that we do so where we need to achieve economic competitiveness. I would go further. I believe that there is a whole range of matters on which we need to renegotiate. My right hon. Friend the Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory) spoke of renegotiation. I agree with that entirely and have argued for it for many years.

We also need to revisit the treaties that this Lisbon treaty would have given us the opportunity to revisit. The Lisbon treaty amalgamates all existing treaties under an arrangement, as the European Scrutiny Committee said, substantially equivalent to the previous constitutional treaty. It affects all the treaties, and this was the moment when we should have reasserted our supremacy.