Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance

Debate between Graham Stringer and Peter Bone

Wednesday 29th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Hertsmere (Mr Clappison) and I agree with every word he said. I shall try to discuss some different issues in my speech.

Let me start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash) on achieving a debate under Standing Order No. 24. I want to comment first on its parliamentary significance. This is only the second time in my parliamentary career that I can remember such a debate being granted, and the first was on the phone hacking scandal. This shows the importance that Mr Speaker gives to the matter. More than 100 Members rose in the Chamber when he agreed to the debate and they were not just from one side of the House, but from both, and they were not just from the Conservative and Labour parties, as all the Democratic Unionist party members were here. It was a very significant show that this House wanted to discuss its views in advance of the European summit and that Members wanted to get their message across to Ministers. I hope that when the Minister sums up, he will be in receiving rather than transmitting mode. That is why this debate is important— Ministers should know what the House is thinking before they go to Europe to debate the issue and, if necessary, cast any votes.

I want to return to the question of the procedure that has led to the mess we find ourselves in today.

[Graham Stringer]

The hon. Gentleman is making a point that has previously been made in this debate in slightly different ways, which is that there should be more opportunities for this House to say to the Government what position they should take before they go into European negotiations. Does he agree that such debates should not only be reinstated but be on votable and amendable motions?

[Mr Bone]

The hon. Gentleman is psychic, because that was the very point I wanted to come on to. It is ridiculous that we are not having such debates and it is even more ridiculous to suggest that they should be scheduled by the Backbench Business Committee. Everyone knows that the Backbench Business Committee is supposed to get 35 days a year, but that has not happened in this double Session of Parliament. I am very pleased to see the Leader of the House pay close attention to the debate and it would help the House enormously if the Committee had the days marked in advance. If that were the case, perhaps the Backbench Business Committee could put on such debates, because we would at least know in advance that we had the days. We did not have a day before the summit on which we could have scheduled this debate. That is not the issue, however. This debate should not be put on by the Backbench Business Committee but by the Government, and it should be on an amendable motion rather than a “take note” motion. I agree entirely with that point.

Let me briefly mention the veto. The Prime Minister rightly vetoed the EU treaty, and no one can pretend that this is an EU treaty—it clearly is not, because we vetoed it. It is also clear that the Prime Minister and the Government believed that the EU institutions could not be used.