UK: EU Membership Debate
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Lord Tomlinson
Main Page: Lord Tomlinson (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Tomlinson's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(10 years, 11 months ago)
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Baroness Warsi
My noble friend makes a vital point. The question about the direction in which the European Union is heading is out there and ignoring it will not make it go away. Therefore it is right that the Conservative Party’s political view is that we will negotiate a fresh settlement and then hold an in/out referendum before the end of 2017. We on these Benches feel that we need to let Britain decide, and I hope noble Lords will follow in the referendum Bill we have at the end of the week.
Lord Tomlinson (Lab)
Will the noble Baroness accept that, grateful as we all were for her best wishes for a happy new year, perhaps she ought to direct them to Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron with a maybe forlorn hope that they will manage to get on with each other on the important issue of Europe?
Baroness Warsi
I firmly hope and believe that the season of good will is not over. I can assure the noble Lord that, as far as the coalition is concerned, the season of good will is certainly there and we have a coalition that is working well.