Clause 8 - Combination of Gibraltar with existing electoral region
European Parliament (Representation) Bill
9:25 am
Mr William Cash (Stone, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 40, in
clause 8, page 5, line 5, at beginning insert 'Subject to section 10,'.
Clause 8 is extremely important. It reads:
''Gibraltar is to be combined with an existing electoral region in England and Wales to form a new electoral region (''the combined region'') for the purposes of European Parliamentary elections taking place after 1st April 2004.''
Inserting the phrase ''Subject to section 10'' at the beginning of that clause draws attention to the provisions of clause 10. Subject to my attempts to have him substituted by the Secretary of State, even more so after yesterday's debate on criminal justice, under clause 10
''The Lord Chancellor may by order . . . specify the existing electoral region to be combined with Gibraltar to form the combined region; and . . . make provision establishing the combined region.''
That is the essence of the point that I want to make and I have quite a lot to say about the manner in which clauses 10 and 11 and the supplementary arrangements set up under clause 12 will interact. In a nutshell, the effect of this apparently innocuous amendment would be to provide a more efficacious manner in which to combine Gibraltar with the existing electoral region.
One thing that has come to my notice has caused me a great deal of concern and I ask the Minister to give the House of Commons, let alone the Committee, an explanation. According to the reports—this may be of some satisfaction to the Government qua Government—up until June 2002 when the Home Office was dealing with the matter, things were proceeding in an extremely orderly fashion. Admittedly, there were serious disputes about the question of a referendum. Foreign Office Ministers were making all sorts of statements and there were counter-statements from Gibraltar. We know the history of that. The bottom line is that it was about whether the people of Gibraltar should be allowed to have their say on the extremely vexed question of relations with Spain.
I am not privy to what goes on behind the scenes in the Government; I can only put the most perceptive interpretation on it that I can, based on the information that I receive. The Minister may be able to explain why, when the Lord Chancellor's Department took over the arrangements, everything suddenly went completely off course, by which I mean that there was no further consultation. The Minister may say that she and the Minister for Europe had
meetings in December, but despite everything that the Government have said about pre-legislative scrutiny, the reality is that, at that point, everything went silent. There was no further consultation and, as I understand it, Gibraltar was not consulted about the proposals in the Bill at all. That seems unbelievable.
We are talking about citizens who will be voting in a combined region and whose democratic rights will be affected by the manner in which the arrangements operate. There is an established system of government in Gibraltar through the House of Assembly. There is a vast tradition of loyalty to this country, extending back to Rooke's famous taking of Gibraltar in 1702—I am sure that someone will correct me if I am wrong.