European Union Bill

My Lords, I want to look, as the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, has done, at the constitutional implications of the Bill, which should concern all Members of the House irrespective of their views on Europe. The Constitution Committee has recommended a very important principle; namely, that referendums should be confined to changes of fundamental constitutional importance. If that principle is respected and strictly observed, such a referendum may not seriously prejudice parliamentary government as we know it. But this Bill as it stands drives a coach and horses through that principle. There is no dispute about a referendum on the euro, or on joining a common European army or a common European foreign policy. But how can it be argued that the 56 possible changes that would trigger a referendum under this Bill are fundamentally constitutional? The noble Lord, Lord Howell, has several times argued that these items are all important. Well, they may well be important. Lots of minor changes may be important, but that does not make them fundamental constitutional changes. If there is a European public prosecutor's office, it will have an important role in dealing with certain kinds of European financial crime. But if we decide to participate in that office, will it fundamentally change the British constitution? Does the noble Lord seriously argue that? Of course it would not. Are changes in the way we vote on the appointment of an Advocate-General or on the protocol on the excessive deficit procedure a fundamental change in the British constitution? Of course they are not. In the past, I have congratulated the noble Lord, Lord Howell, on the eloquent and ingenious way in which he has defended the indefensible, but this is Alice in Wonderland stuff. We are assured that there will be no referendum in this Parliament and the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, stated the reason why. But if this Bill passes into law as it stands, the principle of strict limitation on the use of referendums to major constitutional changes will effectively be abandoned because it will have been established in a major Act of Parliament—or, as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay, described it, a singular and central Act of Parliament—that a referendum is justified because an issue is important even if it has nothing to do with the constitution and also because it is alleged, without any reliable evidence, that people want a referendum and the will of the people must prevail. If importance is the criterion and if what the people want is a criterion, why restrict referendums to the 56 changes to which it applies in this Bill? If you ask people whether they want a voice in National Health Service reform, the answer will be yes, so why not hold a referendum? There could be a referendum even after an Act of Parliament has approved the changes. What about the police reforms or welfare reforms? They are far more important to the ordinary individual than the European public prosecutor's office. Why should the people not have a say? Why not have a referendum on the Government’s policy for deficit reduction, something of basic importance to our welfare? Of course, when you ask people whether they want to have a say, they say yes. It has been argued time after time—