Debate on the Address

I have yet to make up my mind. The hon. Gentleman's question relates to the question from the hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson), which was a very good one. If the Leader of the Conservative party were by some miracle made Prime Minister this weekend, held a referendum to confirm the treaty and that referendum was then defeated, what would happen? There would be paralysis for a little while in the European Union and an awful lot of bad blood. Things would be said, but eventually, grudgingly, there would be some form of renegotiation. I suspect—I cannot prove it—that there would be some extra opt-outs and a fig leaf here and there. Prime Minister Cameron would come back and say, ““I've done well.”” Harold Wilson once said—his words were a bit bogus, looking back—““We've had a fundamental renegotiation of our terms of Common Market entry,”” and Prime Minister Cameron would say the same thing. He would say, ““Haven't I done well?””, and many people on his side would say, ““Yes, you have, but you've got to put the new treaty to a referendum.”” He would reply, ““Come off it. I've done well; I've negotiated. I cannot do that””. Of course, the purists would say that there would have to be a referendum. I invite the House to consider how illogical and absurd this situation is. We could go on having referendum after referendum on a treaty, which is not the way forward. The way forward is to get this treaty, which was intended to deal with the running of the European Union, out of the way, and then to have a reaffirmation referendum in a couple of years' time. Of course, the proposal in question was part of Labour's manifesto. Alas, my fingerprints are not on that manifesto, and I do not recall ever putting such a proposal in my personal manifesto. However, I recognise that the point being made is a legitimate one, and I and others will need to reflect on it in the coming weeks.