Monday’s vote on an EU referendum has certainly caused a great deal of interest. The main question being asked is ‘can the public have a referendum on our membership of the EU: in or out, or renegotiate’.
I am very clear that the timing of any such referendum is completely wrong given the current state of world, European and UK economies. To be distracted at this time would be to focus on the wrong issues.
But even if we were at the right time, I am not sure that an in/out vote would be helpful. From my position on the Treasury Select Committee, where I see a great deal of the detail of our current crises, I am convinced that both outcomes of an in/out vote would be wrong.
Let me explain. A vote to come out of the EU would be to try to reverse nearly four decades of economic development. Our economy is reliant on our membership of the EU. IN Kidderminster, we have manufacturers of car parts that benefit from the free market. Jaguar Land Rover has just announced an engine plant in the Black Country because we are in Europe. Coming out of the single market would result in our car and car part manufacturers having to pay a £1.5 billion annual levy to sell their products into Europe. Elsewhere, our farmers rely on subsidies from Europe and much of our service economy relies on our links with Europe. There are, of course, drawbacks, but I am convinced that the advantages of membership outweigh the disadvantages. But what would happen if we had a vote for the status quo? A vote to stay in Europe? In that event, our leaders would be powerless to renegotiate our terms of membership to deal with the areas of Europe we are not happy with. How could any British prime minister be able to go to Brussels and asks for a renegotiation when our country has just said it wants to stay in. We would be in an impossible position.
But I do strongly believe that we need a national debate on our relationship with Europe. It is vital that we have some sort of process of education and examination of all the issues. I am also in agreement that the very best way to have this national debate is to hold a referendum. But if the in/out option is more damaging than helpful, what is the alternative?
My colleague George Eustace MP tabled an amendment that calls for a referendum on our relationship with Europe, giving our prime minister a mandate to go and renegotiate our EU membership to our advantage. This is already Conservative policy so in itself it changes nothing. But what it does do is to give clear instructions to our leaders, and to Europe, that this country is unhappy about our EU membership as it currently stands, and serious about renegotiation. I am one of the early signatures on this amendment and it deals with the issues in a constructive way.
Sadly, the amendment wasn’t allowed by the Speaker, and so I voted against the substantive motion; against a referendum on our EU membership. I did this utterly convinced that this is in the best interests of jobs in my constituency of Wyre Forest and of the wider economy as a whole. As it turned out, so did most of my colleagues. The vote was lost by 111 in favour of a referendum to 483 against. But I do believe that this was not as a result of the work of the whips. I do believe that my colleagues on both sides of the House voted with their conscience on the debate itself.
Our membership needs to be reviewed. That is why I am a member of the new ‘Fresh Start’ group in Westminster, where we are commissioning serious academic research to see what actually is wrong with our membership, what needs to be renegotiated and how we go about this – seeing where we can make concessions and provide help in return for better deals elsewhere. That is the way forward, I believe, that recognises our desperate economic and fiscal plight; a plight created by the man who went on to deny this country a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty: Gordon Brown.
This government has already delivered the referendum lock that will never again allow a British prime minister the ability to give away powers to Europe without the specific agreement of the British people. But we need to give the prime mister the tools and support to work on our behalf and to avoid any action that will hinder his, or her, ability to do the best for our country.