It is usual for MPs to leave Parliament on a Thursday so they can spend time in their constituency on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday: holding advice surgeries, attending community meetings, visiting local businesses and charities and opening new projects. On Friday 8th November however I was still in Westminster ready to vote on the EU Referendum Bill that is currently making its way through Parliament.
The content of the Bill is quite simple; people feel that the EU has been heading in a direction that they never signed up to. If the Conservatives win the next General Election, we want to negotiate a fresh settlement with the EU that is better for Britain. We will then hold an in-out referendum before the end of 2017. We need to let Britain decide.
At second reading Conservative MPs voted for the European Union Referendum Bill to legislate for an in-out referendum before the end of 2017. But on Friday 8th November, when Conservative MPs stayed in Westminster to vote to let Britain decide, Labour MPs stayed away.
I am committed to seeing the UK renegotiating its relationship with the EU and then giving the British people a referendum in 2017. The UK is committed to playing a leading role in the EU and protecting the UK’s national interest, but the EU needs to reform to meet the challenges of competitiveness, a stable euro zone and greater democratic legitimacy. The EU was set up to boost the wealth, trade and economic security of European Countries. But some in Europe want to take the EU in a new direction, which would not be helpful economically, politically, or socially.
I know that this Conservative-led Government will always stand up for Britain’s national interest in Europe. We have already stopped the passage of further areas of power to the EU and introduced a ‘referendum lock’ on transferring new powers from Britain. As someone who started and ran their own small business for 25 years before becoming Rugby’s MP. I know just how important it is to be selling goods to Europe. But we need to have a say in what the rules of the European Union are.
It is disappointing that neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats want to let the people decide if or how they want to stay in the EU – almost all their MPs aren’t even turning up to debate it. I’m glad, however, that the Conservative party is both standing up for what is fair – giving people a voice – and looking to make the EU work for Britain, by renegotiating.