Clause 2 — Addition to list of treaties

Part of Orders of the Day – in the House of Commons at 6:15 pm on 6 February 2008.

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Photo of Bill Cash Bill Cash Conservative, Stone 6:15, 6 February 2008

Today is Ash Wednesday, which is the day on which we ought to repent. I went to a service this morning in Westminster cathedral. I am going to repent the mistake that I made in 1986 of voting for the Single European Act. It was then called the European Communities (Amendment) Bill, which is not unlike the name of the Bill we are debating, except we are talking not about European Communities but about the European Union. I want to put that on the record because my hon. Friend—my dear friend—Mr. Shepherd, who voted against that Act, knows what it means for me to say what I say now.

I shall say one other thing, however. I tabled an amendment to that 1986 Bill that stipulated that nothing in the Act should derogate from the sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament. As I was going through the Lobby, a certain other person came to join me—the predecessor of Rob Marris, who has intervened a lot in this debate. It was Mr. Enoch Powell, and he said to me, "I have put my name to your amendment." And those two names stood there on the Order Paper, completely alone on the sovereignty of this Parliament with regard to the 1986 legislation.

On 23 April 1986, I made several points about the internal market. I said that I had

"some reservations about how we might move to majority voting."

I also pointed out—to pick up the points of my right hon. Friend Mr. Heathcoat-Amory—that the CBI and other trade organisations should make proper representations. In the internal market, it is essential that representations are properly made so that we can respond on matters such as exclusive competence, shared competence and so on—the subject matter of the amendments.

At that time, I spoke after the then Minister for Trade. I said that we must put our British interests first. I emphasised:

"We live in a global economy but have to keep our interests ahead of other people's. We must have regard to our own interests while working in the EC."

I believe that that remains the case. In my short speech, I also mentioned that I had recently served on the Financial Services Bill Standing Committee, in which all the issues that crop up in the group of amendments arose. I said that

"we shall be exposed to international pressures in investments, capital movements, competition, biotechnology, intellectual property... banking, financial services, and telecommunications."

I said that, in all such matters—