Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Bill

Lord Lang of Monkton Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2011 Lords Chamber

Essentially, what this Bill is seeking to do is to treat itself as a constitutional Bill that will pre-empt future Parliaments, unless they exercise their sovereign powers to repeal it. In other words, it seeks to act in a quasi-constitutional way. It will therefore inevitably introduce rigidity where at the moment we have maximum flexibility, and do so in the name of the democratic imperative. I do not find that persuasive when one sees the range of issues that are apparently to be subject to future referenda. That will not help the interests of the United Kingdom in negotiating within the corridors of power in Brussels and it will not enlighten our citizens, were we to have referenda on these subjects. Since it is not proposed that the powers in this Bill should be exercised in the lifetime of this Parliament, I believe that sunset and sunrise are appropriate.

[Lord Lang of Monkton]

My Lords, nobody is better suited than the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, to inject into a debate on a European-related matter a degree of intricacy, complexity and subtlety. He did it with great success in a number of earlier debates on this Bill. However, from my point of view this is not a complex issue. This amendment that we are addressing is not about the substance of the Bill as such but about whether the Bill should contain a sunset clause. That seems a much simpler issue, which can be much more directly addressed. We need to ask only what the objectives of the proponents of this amendment might be and what their motive might be for the future of the Bill.

The Bill is essentially about national sovereignty. It is about the protection of our national political security and about long-term national confidence. It is an attempt to halt the endless drift of sovereignty, salami-sliced over the years, with the erosion of our long-term security and constitutional stability by that drift towards the European Union. All earlier such commitments to restrain that kind of drift seem to have failed. I remember that at one time the watchword was “subsidiarity” and we all cheered subsidiarity around the time of the Maastricht treaty. It was going to make life so much easier and more direct, and stop the endless flow. Of course, it did not and has not and that is one more attempt that has failed.

However, this Bill is for the long term. It is an attempt to stop the rot. No Parliament can bind its successor; that seems to be the simple answer to those who believe that a sunset clause is necessary in the Bill. They say that it undermines our constitutional sovereignty. It does not because Parliament has that degree of sovereignty and could reform, repeal or change this Bill at a later date. Yet in European matters a strand of sovereignty, once lost, tends to prove irrecoverable. Without the certainty of an established position by an Act of Parliament, that trend could resurface and continue. Against that background, a sunset clause would inject uncertainty and short-termism. It would undermine the purpose of the Bill, which is perhaps the objective of the movers of the amendment. This House is here to revise and improve legislation, not to destroy the objective of that legislation. For that reason, the amendment should be opposed.

[Lord Jopling]

My Lords, I follow what my noble friend Lord Lang said, but I come to rather a different conclusion. Some of the speeches that we have heard on the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, have reverted in some ways to Second Reading speeches. I do not intend to move in that direction. I take a very simple approach to this amendment. I have now worked in this building for almost 47 years. Throughout my entire political life I have had the greatest loathing for referenda in principle. I dislike them intensely. I have always taken the view that the more referenda you have, the more people will say, “If you have these, I don’t see much point in being a Member of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords”. I therefore start with a dislike of referenda.

I have reluctantly supported the Bill in all the Divisions that have taken place on it. However, the point I want to make is the one to which my noble friend Lord Lang has just referred. Very simply, at the beginning of each Parliament, why should that Parliament not decide for itself whether it wants to revive this legislation? The amendment suggests that it should be done in a simple way by order rather than by imposing on Governments all the rigmarole of primary legislation. I cannot see why it would be necessary, given the sunset clause, to impose that on a new Parliament.

As many of my friends on both sides of the House will know, years ago I was a business manager in the other place. Early in a new Parliament, before new Bills are ready, there is plenty of time to set aside a day for deciding whether it is desirable to reactivate the European Union Bill. This would mean that at the beginning of each Parliament, following the result of the general election, a decision could be taken that reflected the views of the public. That is what Parliament should be doing and the way that Members of Parliament should operate. I therefore have every intention of supporting the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Kerr.