European Union (Implications of Withdrawal) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thought the suggestion was that the Parliament should take over. We would not go along with that. The noble Lord, Lord Monson, as usual, made an interesting suggestion for the Committee stage. I accept that Article 1(3)(c) would be much better if people who were open-minded were included in the Committee. The noble Lord, Lord Dykes, said that we supporters of the Bill are old-fashioned, old fogies, out of touch and all the rest of it. That is not what modern opinion polls suggest. They suggest that around 65 per cent of the British population would like either to leave the European Union altogether or to reduce our relationship with it to one of simple free trade with the single market. One of the most delightful aspects of those recent polls is that the most Euro-sceptic people in the country are actually the 18 to 25 year-old age group. I was grateful for the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Howell. He says he is in favour of reform, but of course that is not possible. The treaties make it impossible. Realistically, there is no way that this creature can be reformed. He wanted the disgraceful foreign aid process of the EU in the Bill, along with its passion for binding targets on the environment and energy. I am sure we can accommodate all those areas in Committee. Finally, the Minister says that he cannot recognise the facts that have been put forward by supporters of the Bill today. I have to tell him that pretty well all the facts that we put forward are extracts from official reports and statements and, of course, the Pink Book. He said that the Bill is really about withdrawal—he was agreeing, I think, with the noble Lords, Lord Dykes and Lord Watson, about that—but it really is not. Of course I confess that I believe that an unbiased inquiry would confirm the overwhelming and unanswerable case for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, but only such an inquiry can show whether I am right or wrong. I am in favour of it and am prepared to live by it. That does not apply to the Minister, the Government, the Liberal Democrat Benches or, I fear, the Conservative Party. The Minister thinks that the British people are very pragmatic and not worried about our EU membership. That is not what the polls seem to show. But if it were right, why not trust them with the results of this inquiry? Why not trust them in a referendum on the further transfers of power to Brussels that will be agreed at the forthcoming summit? The answer can only be that the Government wish to avoid the results. On Question, Bill read a second time, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.