by Henry Smith, MP for Crawley (Conservative)
Last Friday I held an open ‘surgery’ at Tesco’s Hazelwick (next Friday at 3pm I’m at Sainsbury’s in West Green).
I’m grateful for the many issues raised by constituents and shoppers, several that stuck in my mind was concern that the people of Crawley and Great Britain should have a say on our membership of the EU.
Ironically last Wednesday in the unelected House of Lords Labour and Liberal democrat peers voted to block the Conservative Bill that would have ensured a referendum on UK’s EU membership by the end of 2017.
This is really disappointing news for all of us. It would have been wonderful to have succeeded in turning our referendum commitment into law at our first attempt. But it helpfully does make some things very clear indeed.
First, the Conservative Party has shown its complete commitment to holding an in-out referendum on the EU by the end of 2017.
Second, it has exposed Labour and the Liberal Democrats’ true positions. They don’t want to give the British people their say or let Britain decide on our EU membership.
They tried to stop the Bill by talking it out in the Commons but didn’t succeed.
In the Lords they showed their true colours by voting to deny our Bill enough time to become law.
We needed to get this Bill through the Lords in time for MPs to consider it again on 28 February. That now won’t be possible.
But rest assured that we are not going to give up in our efforts to turn our referendum commitment into law. Far from it. After all, we succeeded in passing it through the House of Commons – a huge achievement.
We are going to try to reintroduce the same Bill in the next session of Parliament and, if necessary, rely on the provisions in the Parliament Act to stop Labour and the Liberal Democrats killing the Bill once again.
We are doing everything we can to ensure that an in-out referendum is enshrined in law before the next election.
But the most important point is this: irrespective of these attempts, the Conservative Party remains absolutely committed to giving the British people their say in a referendum.
We are the only party that wants to – and can – give the British people their say.
That message – that we want to let Britain decide – is what we take to the country as we head into the European and General elections.
It is clearer than ever now where we stand – the only way you can get that referendum is to vote Conservative.