Treaty Ratification Procedure

Part of Leader of the House – in the House of Commons at 10:30 am on 8 May 2008.

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Photo of Mark Harper Mark Harper Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions) 10:30, 8 May 2008

I am grateful to the Deputy Leader of the House for that answer, but in a previous case where we had parliamentary scrutiny of a treaty—namely the Lisbon treaty—it was not a rip-roaring success. The Government broke their promise on having a referendum and then we were promised detailed line-by-line scrutiny in the House, which was also not delivered. If the Government are going to bring forward the proposals that the Deputy Leader of the House described, they had better listen, learn from those experiences, deliver on their promises and ensure that the House has a genuine say in the ratification of treaties, because if the Lisbon treaty process is any example, people will be left feeling let down by the Government yet again.

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ross warren
Posted on 9 May 2008 1:02 pm (Report this annotation)

Yes you remind them Mark, even Labour supporters (I know a Few)resent this through the backdoor treaty. Blair promised us a referendum and as Brown hasn't got the bottle to seek his own mandate he should at least recognize that his administration is bound by that promise. Some hope of us getting one as they know the answer would be a firm no.