European Communities (Finance) Bill

No, I do not wish Turkey to be a member of the European Union. As I said, we are currently £700 billion in debt as a nation, and this year alone we borrowed £34 billion. My constituents will find it extremely difficult to comprehend how the Government could forgo such a huge rebate when we are borrowing so much money and our own public services are at breaking point. The Chief Secretary says that this is all about helping eastern European countries, and that we in the Conservative party are against eastern Europeans because we oppose the Bill. I feel very angry and upset about his comments. Never, in two and a half years, have I sat in the Chamber and been so incensed and appalled as I am by rhetoric of that kind. The Chief Secretary claims that we are against Poles because we are not prepared to give them huge financial subsidies. I feel very insulted by him. This is the arrogance of power. This is what the Labour Government are all about: they cannot justify giving up the rebate, so they want to insult us by saying that we are against eastern Europeans. What I object to is our country, the United Kingdom, footing almost the entire bill for the assistance of eastern European countries. Of course all of us in the Chamber want to help those countries, which underwent a terrible experience during the days of communism and the iron curtain. However, we have helped them a great deal in the past. It was Britain, and Margaret Thatcher, who insisted that they enter NATO and become members of the European Union. We wrote off all the debts that they had incurred during the days of communism. We have always stood by the Poles, far more than many other European Union countries, and what the Minister said was very misleading.