I am grateful to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to contribute briefly to the debate. I should say at the outset that I support the Bill but I also support the European project and the European Union. I do not think that we have anything to fear from a referendum, whenever it happens.
Let me run through the amendments. I have already told my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes) that I do not support everything that he has proposed. I support amendment 52, oppose amendments 53, 55 and 17, support amendment 5, and say no to amendments 6, 7 and 16, and yes to amendment 61. I would be interested to hear the explanation from my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow West (Mr Thomas), who is on the Front Bench, for amendments 64 and 84, which we have not heard yet. I am not entirely convinced by the proposed wording. I oppose amendment 85. As for amendment 65, tabled by the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood), which he has said that he will not press to a vote, I think its tone was defeatist about Scottish independence and the referendum so I was going to vote against it in principle, as I think we will win the referendum for Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom.
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As I have said, I will not detain the House in speaking to this group of amendments. I oppose amendments 53 and 54 because they would apply after the general election. I support amendment 52 on the basis that it commits the Electoral Commission to a specific date before the general election and creates an opportunity for an informed debate as part of the general election. Parties will therefore approach the matter and stimulate interest in participation, which my hon. Friend the Member for Derby North (Chris Williamson) is keen to see—he wants a financial penalty for people who do not vote. In addition, amendment 52 gives clarity to the Lords in advance of its opportunity to examine the Bill—it would say clearly that this House would like the report to be published before the general election, and that would help deliberations in the Lords.
We have discussed amendment 17. My hon. Friend the Member for Caerphilly (Wayne David) and I probably straightforwardly agree that proposed new paragraphs 3(1A)(c) and (d) give a veto to each European parliamentary constituency rather than a majority of constituencies. There might be an anomaly in the voting pattern between people within European constituencies—they might vote one way by a majority of constituencies and vote another way by a majority vote. Giving each European constituency a veto over the outcome of the referendum, let alone giving the devolved territories an opportunity, is wholly inappropriate.
I covered my views on amendment 5 in an intervention—Madam Deputy Speaker admonished me for straying into that territory. The position looks straightforward and a limit would be sensible.
I have commented on amendment 6. People would be bored to death if we forced them to watch adverts on TV, or if they had to change channels too often to avoid them, or if they had to avoid adverts in their newspapers.
It would turn people off politics and discussion, not stimulate greater participation in politics, which all hon. Members want. On amendment 7, I have said that we need to ensure that, if we are to require adverts in the written media, the publishers should be paid, just as TV, radio and cable broadcasters would have to be paid to carry adverts.
Supporting amendment 61 is straightforward. It states that we should
“consult and seek agreement from the devolved administrations”,
which is a sensible way to proceed. It does not say that they have a veto that means that the referendum will not go ahead if they fail to agree with us. Instead, it says that we should enlist their support and ensure they are in touch with us.
As I mentioned when I outlined my perspective on the amendments in the group, I do not have a view on the amendments tabled by the shadow Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow West, because I have not heard the argument on the Gibraltarians or the audits. I look forward to him making those arguments.
I agree with the Minister on amendment 85 and compulsory voting. Voting should be a matter of civic responsibility, notwithstanding giving up £50, the equivalent of a West Ham game—at the moment, giving up a West Ham game would not be too difficult given how badly they are playing. I am not totally convinced about introducing financial penalties and making voting compulsory in that regard.
As I said, I support the Bill. I should say by the way that I was the private Member’s Bill Whip on Fridays from 2001 to 2005 during the Labour Government. The Minister’s comments on the amendments tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South were quite strong. I sat in the Chamber on many Fridays over a number of years listening to the right hon. Eric Forth challenge private Members’ Bills time and again. He irritated the life out of me, but he had the constitutional right to ensure that the bar for private Members’ Bills was set as high as possible. Passing laws for our country should not be an easy measure. I wholly respect the right of the hon. Member for Stockton South (James Wharton) to introduce his Bill and I support the principle of a referendum, but it is such a constitutional amendment that it should have been a Government Bill rather than a private Member’s Bill.