European Union (Referendum) Bill

Robert Jenrick Excerpts

Friday 17th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Robert Jenrick (Newark) (Con)]

As the only Government Member who had not yet been elected when my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton South (James Wharton) heroically introduced the previous Bill, I can say that the deeply disappointing obstruction of that Bill at least enabled new Members such as me—and from 20 November onwards, I hope, my future Conservative colleague in Rochester and Strood—to give my support to this Bill.

It will come as no surprise to the House that I did not vote in 1975. I was not born in 1975—I was not even a glint in the eyes of my parents, who had not met in 1975—and I am not alone. There is a generation of people out there who need to have their say, and the Bill gives the British public an important opportunity to have their say on how this country has been governed over the past 40 years. It is clear that, during that time, more powers and far too much public money have been surrendered to Brussels. Parliament’s sovereignty has been eroded and degraded by the dogma of ever-closer union. Our families and businesses have been subjected to far too much regulation and red tape. The remote and undemocratic leadership of the EU has contributed to the erosion of trust in the House of Commons and in politics, and to the erosion of our national identity and self-confidence.

Successive Governments have contributed to that as well. The Labour Party promised a referendum on the European constitution, won an election on that promise, and then denied us a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. That seems to me to be a scandalous breach of trust, and our inability to correct it thus far has contributed to the culture of mistrust and cynicism that pervades our politics and enables the essentially destructive politics of protest and pessimism to take hold in the country. Now is the time to right that wrong and to use the mechanism of the Bill as an essential guarantor, given that previous promises have been made and then ignored.

I believe that there will be a referendum. I believe that this is an idea whose time has come—whose time, indeed, came a long time ago. The choice for those who have opposed it in the past, and may choose to do so again today, is whether to accept that inevitability with dignity and embrace it for the opportunities that it brings.

We have nothing to fear in this Bill, nothing to fear in trusting the public, and much to gain. As has been said in the past by many Members and today, notably, by the hon. Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey), this is not merely a matter of the House trusting the public with a decision on the central question of our national future. It is a matter of our providing the public with a reason to trust the House, and our political process a little more, and using this moment to engage and inspire the public in respect of what we want this country to be and where we want it to go in the future.

This has been the dominant issue of the past 30 or 40 years. It has been the subject of constant debates in the House, the press and the country. It has seized the consciousness of much of the British public. At some stage we must put it to the British public, and at some stage we must answer the questions that lie behind it and get on with the life of this country. Let me point out, with apologies to the Leader of the House, that some of you will not be here in 30 or 40 years’ time—[Laughter]—but for the sake of those who will, I do not want us still to be debating and discussing this issue without resolution, without settlement, and without the voice of the public finally being heard. I want us to settle this matter, and then to turn outward as a nation and look to the future. I want us to devote the energies of the House and our politics to the challenges of the 21st century, securing our prosperity and our place in the world. Now is the time for us to throw this question open to the nation, to spark a debate, and to empower the British people at long last.