Wednesday 12 January 2011

The event that never happened

It was hailed in the press and amongst certain bloggers that David Cameron would have a problem at the debate held yesterday as many Conservative Eurosceptic MPs intended to rebel and it being intimated that he would lose the vote on amendments to Clause 18 of the European Union Bill. As with all such previous reports, the latest so-called rebellion just did not materialise. The entire debate can be read here with the details of the vote at the end of the Hansard report.

It was in answer to an intervention by John Redwood that David Lidington, Minister for Europe, made what can only be considered the most incredible statement and this I reproduce in full (Hansard column 251):
"Mr Redwood: Will the Minister tell the House that he wishes to assert parliamentary sovereignty and resist judicial incursions, even if he will not put that in the Bill?
Mr Lidington: Yes. I am an elected Member of Parliament. I did not campaign for many years to come here to hand over the powers and privileges of the House of Commons to unelected groups of any sort."
If Lidington did not become elected to hand over the powers and privileges of the House of Commons to unelected groups of any sort one has to question his decision to accept ministerial office!

For the record Lidington's voting record can be seen here, 1997 to the present.

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