European Union (Amendment) Bill

Part of Orders of the Day – in the House of Commons at 5:18 pm on 21 January 2008.

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Photo of David Miliband David Miliband Foreign Secretary 5:18, 21 January 2008

For the same reason that the right hon. Gentleman voted against a referendum on the Maastricht treaty in 1992—namely, that we are a parliamentary democracy and this is an amending treaty.

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David SAMUEL
Posted on 26 Jan 2008 12:14 am (Report this annotation)

The difference is that the Government included a clear promise to hold a referendum in their election manifesto for the 2005 general election. I don't believe there was any such commitment in the Conservative manifesto for the 1987 general election, being the one before the debates on the Maastricht treaty.