Lisbon Treaty (No. 3)

The right hon. Gentleman knows what my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition said about seeking to restore national Parliaments' control of employment measures. He will have to wait with bated breath for the detailed presentation of Conservative policy, but I can promise him that his appetite will be satisfied well before the next election. [Interruption.] I am always impressed by the way in which Labour Members become increasingly excited by the prospect of what the future Conservative Government will do. The right hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) tried to come to the Lord Chancellor's rescue, but Conservative Members know what the Lord Chancellor said about his commitments on consulting the people, we know what he really thinks and we still cherish the hope, even at this late stage, that he will be prepared to step up to say what he privately believes about the need to consult the people. There is a sense of poetic justice in our debating human rights today, because yesterday's events and the treatment meted out to the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field), and the hon. Members for Manchester, Blackley (Graham Stringer), for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Ms Stuart) and for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey) remind us that the rights to free speech, due process and a fair trial need to be defended today with vigilance and determination. The Prime Minister must have set some new standard in ordering the persecution of four Members of Parliament for seeking to deliver something that not only they, but he had promised the British people at the previous general election. Let me deal with the motion, the treaty's content and its human rights elements. Three key elements of the treaty should concern us this afternoon. Paragraph 2 of article 6 provides for the European Union to accede to the European convention on human rights, but the Secretary of State did not give us a likely timetable for that. It might help if the Minister for Europe's response threw more light on that proposed time scale and on whether negotiating problems must still be overcome before accession. The Secretary of State assured my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Mr. Shepherd) that in the event of a clash of judgments between the two courts, the European Court of Human Rights' decision would take precedence, but I can find nothing in the treaty text to support the Government's assertion. Ministers have a duty to explain in much greater detail exactly how such a conflict would be reconciled.