European Communities (Finance) Bill

I am pleased to be able to speak in a European debate, and in particular to speak on the Bill that will give effect to the deal signed up to by our previous Prime Minister last December. That deal will cost Britain billions in future years and, as has already been pointed out, will bring very little to Britain in return, at least in material terms. The deal was described by The Economist as a very poor one for Britain. The Economist is hardly the kind of Eurosceptic, leftist magazine that I would support, but it said that no deal would have been better than that deal. I certainly agree with that. The previous Prime Minister negotiated—if that is a fair description—the deal at the last minute, at the end of Britain's presidency of the EU. It was also done in a rather spontaneous and arbitrary manner that apparently shocked and astonished other politicians, who felt that they would at least have had to refer back to their Cabinets and Governments before making such a dramatic decision. The fact that our then Chancellor of the Exchequer was not with the previous Prime Minister at the time might have made it rather easier for him to do that deal. Perhaps he knew that he was soon to leave office, and that it would be left to his successor to pick up the tab. That is precisely what has happened, and one suspects that, behind the scenes, our new Prime Minister is, unsurprisingly, not happy about the deal.