European Union (Amendment) Bill

Will the right hon. Gentleman allow me to proceed for a moment? It is important to remind the Committee—I have done so twice, but I shall do so again—of that manifesto commitment, to which I and every other Labour Member of Parliament was bound. It said of the new constitutional treaty:"““It strengthens the voice of national parliaments and governments in EU affairs. It is a good treaty for Britain and for the new Europe. We will put it to the British people in a referendum and campaign whole-heartedly for a ‘Yes’ vote to keep Britain a leading nation in Europe.””" It was not, therefore, a commitment to hold any kind of referendum; it was a commitment that everybody elected on the Labour ticket would have to campaign for a yes vote. I have a feeling that my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, South-West (Mr. Davidson) would have picked and mixed on that part of the manifesto. I have great personal affection for him, as he knows, but I have to tell him that he was wrong about another matter as well. He said that if the Liberal Democrats could get away with it, they would campaign in one part of the country for one thing and for another thing in another part of the country. That is not so. If they could get away with it, they would campaign in one street for one thing and in the next street for another thing. A Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament in Manchester was elected to this House on the false pretext that the Christie cancer hospital would close. Two and a half years later, it is still open, so I would not trust a Liberal Democrat on anything whatsoever. The Conservatives are my opponents and I know where I am with them; I would far rather trust them than the Liberal Democrats, who—well, I had better not go on, because you will not permit certain language in this Committee, Sir Alan. I will now give way to the right hon. Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory).