Now is not the time for a referendum

The main event at Westminster this week has been the debate on a possible referendum over Britain’s membership of the European Union. This is an issue that has caused problems for my party for some years. The debate was prompted by an e-petition which called for this debate. These petitions were introduced by this Government as a mechanism to allow debates to take place in Parliament when more than 100,000 people request it.

The motion put before Parliament asked for a referendum on three options; to remain in the EU, to come out of the EU or to renegotiate the terms of our membership. The option to renegotiate is the one I would prefer and I suspect the majority of the British public would want.   It is difficult to see though how a referendum carried in this country to renegotiate our links with the EU could be binding on other EU countries. For this reason I felt that the motion lacked some logic and I didn’t support it.

Our relationship with Europe remains an important issue, I believe we have given up too much sovereignty to the EU and I have always opposed the single currency. Keeping Britain out of the Euro has proven to be the right decision for this country’s economy and national identity.

 I have no difficulty with the principle of a referendum on whether we remain in Europe or not but unfortunately this motion didn’t call for that. Getting the economy back on track and promoting growth and employment must though remain the priority for this Government and placing such a question mark over our membership of the EU right now would not have helped this cause.