11 January 2014

Telegraph: 95 UK Tory MPs call for EU law veto

In a major intervention, 95 Conservative backbenchers have written to the Prime Minister urging him to change the law to give the Commons authority to block new EU legislation and repeal existing measures that threaten Britain's "national interests".

The letter calls on Cameron to adopt the findings of a report published in November last year by the Commons European scrutiny committee which called for "a mechanism whereby the House of Commons can decide that a particular EU legislative proposal should not apply to the UK". The letter said: "This proposal would enable the government, for example, to recover control over our borders, to lift EU burdens on business, to regain control over energy policy and to disapply the EU charter of fundamental rights (which is set impose enormous costs on British business and taxpayers) in popular and sensible ways. Building on your achievements, we would urge you to back the European scrutiny committee proposal and make the idea of a national veto over current and future EU laws a reality."

Such powers would enable the Government to reverse the spread of human rights law, relieve businesses of red tape from Brussels and regain control over immigration, they say. They believe the veto is possible with a new Act of Parliament. The letter reflects mounting frustration among Conservative MPs at the Prime Minister’s failure to spell out his vision for a new Europe.

Details of the letter have emerged at a highly sensitive time for Mr Cameron, at the start of a week when the issue of EU reform is expected to dominate the political agenda. It comes as:

• Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, demands "a completely new relationship with the EU”, reforming benefits, migration and employment laws. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, he calls for “a radical new approach to human rights laws";
• Peter Cruddas, the former Conservative Party Treasurer, says that as a businessman he believes Europe "has to change". Writing in the Telegraph’s business section, he says Britain has a "once in a lifetime opportunity to reverse two decades of misrule";
• George Osborne prepares to address a major two-day conference on EU reform, held by two campaign groups, Open Europe and the Fresh Start Project. The Chancellor will argue that although Britain is better off remaining inside a reformed EU, the UK has major allies in pushing for change.

The MPs’ demand for a national veto signals a decisive end to the fragile truce between Mr Cameron and his colleagues over Europe, which has held since the Prime Minister agreed last May to support a Bill paving the way for an in/out referendum on EU membership.

The Tory MPs fear the Bill will be blocked in the House of Lords by Labour and Lib Dem peers and have decided to demand alternative action. MPs who have signed the letter include James Clappison; Conor Burns; John Baron; Anne Main and Sir Gerald Howarth, the former Defence Minister. Several eurosceptic ministers, including Cabinet ministers, also privately support the call for a national veto, The Sunday Telegraph understands.

Currently, Parliament has no automatic veto over EU laws. The Prime Minister can use Britain’s veto to block only the most sensitive European plans — such as on defence and the EU budget — during summit negotiations with other national leaders in Brussels.

A growing number of laws and decisions are made in Brussels without any guarantee that Britain can stop them, as they require the support of only a “qualified majority” of EU member governments to be passed. A committee of MPs which scrutinises EU laws last month recommended that a national veto be introduced. But David Lidington, the Europe Minister, has rejected the idea of one national parliament being able to veto EU plans.

The Tory leadership has known of the growing demands for Parliament to be given sovereign power to block EU laws in the form of a veto for several weeks. However, some MPs believe Mr Cameron is “in denial” over the strength of feeling inside the party and in the country. Conservative whips are said to have warned MPs not to sign the letter.

Full article

Full letter to the PM

Related reading: European Union (Approvals) Bill: Second reading

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Meanwhile William Hague, the foreign secretary, says Tory MPs who want power to veto every aspect of EU law are failing to be 'realistic'. The Telegraph reported that Mr Hague warned that the move would risk undermining the European single market.

He told the Murnaghan show on Sky News: "If national parliaments all around the European Union were regularly and unilaterally just able to chose which bits of EU law they would apply and which bits they wouldn't well then the European single market wouldn't work. Even a Swiss-style free trade arrangement with the European Union wouldn't work. We have to be realistic about these things."

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling also told the Sunday Politics show on BBC One: "I don’t think it’s realistic to have a system where one parliament can veto laws across the whole EU, the Foreign Secretary has said that this morning. We’ve got to have a situation that’s viable and I’m not convinced we could actually have a situation where one parliament could prevent laws happening across the whole of the European Union."

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister, said David Cameron and Tory MPs were risking "economic suicide" by even considering leaving the European Union.

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Further, Lord Mandelson has said those pushing for an EU referendum in 2017 are "holding a pistol" to the head of other European countries, reports the BBC. The former Labour Cabinet minister said the UK should be seeking to reform the European Union rather than "grandstanding" about getting out, describing a referendum as a "lottery". He accused the Conservatives of "playing to the UKIP gallery". Lord Mandelson, a former EU commissioner who is one of the most high-profile europhiles in British politics, said EU membership was "fundamental to Britain's interests" and politicians should be "wary" about putting that in doubt. "A referendum is a very blunt instrument to be handled with great care", he said.

Tory peer Lord Dobbs, however, said the referendum was "about democracy". Lord Dobbs, who is spearheading the referendum bill's passage through the Lords, said: "It's very revealing that Lord Mandelson describes democracy as a 'lottery' - he's showing a total lack of respect for the British people who won't forgive Labour and the Liberal Democrats if yet again they try to prevent a referendum on Europe. 

See also: Coalition partners reject Tory MPs' call for veto over European Union laws © The Guardian

© The Telegraph