Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I shall make it clear from the start—I hope this will put the hon. Member for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois) out of any pain—that we will not be supporting his amendments tonight. We will be voting against them, and I shall explain why. Liberal Democrats support a referendum on Europe, but on Britain's membership of the EU and not on the legalese of any specific treaty. We believe that the British people want to be able to answer the in-out question, and that that is the sort of constitutional issue that is best put in a referendum. As the right hon. Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) said, that is the right way forward.