European Union (Amendment) Bill

I have just explained, laboriously, that we have no commitment to holding a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. There was no such thing as a Lisbon treaty in the 2005 election—it was not envisaged that there would be such a treaty when we were fighting that election. We were committed to—I was committed to—the constitutional treaty to which our Labour Government were committed. Although I will support the Lisbon treaty because I am so loyal to this Government that it actually hurts me, that is not the same as the constitutional treaty on which we had the manifesto pledge. My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, South-West talks about the explicit promise in the 2005 Labour party manifesto. There was an explicit promise, but it was to campaign wholeheartedly in favour of accepting, supporting and endorsing the constitutional treaty that was then extant. It is interesting to reflect on the Conservatives’ attitude to referendums up to now. In the 1990s, they signed up to the Maastricht treaty, which was fundamental—far more so than this treaty or the constitutional treaty that we committed ourselves to supporting in 2005. It turned the European Community into the European Union. It was much more far-reaching than the Lisbon treaty. Did the 1992 Conservative manifesto promise a referendum on the Maastricht treaty? You must be kidding! A good deal of reference has been made today to the Labour party’s 2005 manifesto, but let us look at the Conservative party’s 1992 manifesto:"““The Conservatives have been the party of Britain in Europe for 30 years…The Maastricht Treaty was a success both for Britain and for the rest of Europe. British proposals helped to shape the key provisions of the Treaty including those””—[Interruption.]" If the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe will allow me just for a moment—I am sure that he would not want to sully this quotation:"““British proposals helped to shape the key provisions of the Treaty including those strengthening the enforcement of Community law…subsidiarity and law and order…All Member States must live up to their obligations under Community law. At Maastricht, we””—" the Tory Government—"““secured agreement that the European Court will be able to fine any Member State which fails to do so.””" That is what they signed up to.