Lisbon Treaty (No. 3)

I have taken two interventions and that is my maximum. I sincerely invite my right hon. and hon. Friends who have spoken critically—I understand where some of that comes from—to reflect carefully. There is a global neo-liberal agenda to destroy Europe, to remove such protections as currently exist, to talk down the right of social protection, and to say that rights are not universal but defined simply by the employer and capital against the human being. That is why I hope that the Government will be supported tonight, and that is why the world, reading this debate, will realise how deeply reactionary and regressive today's Conservative party is in turning its back on its history of supporting international rights.