European Union (Amendment) Bill

It is never comfortable to vote with another party in this House, especially when Labour has made such a pig’s ear of the arguments that it seeks to defend, but I shall do so. At least I can say that none of us will have the distasteful task of having to go through the Lobby with the Liberal Democrats, so I shall be limited to a single disagreeable experience rather than a double one. In Prime Minister’s questions a few hours ago, the Prime Minister challenged the Conservatives to put a positive case for Europe. Given his behaviour, it struck me that he had either a short memory or an entirely unexpected sense of humour. I explained the action that I shall take to my Whips when this series of debates started, and no pressure has been put on me to change my mind. There has been entirely honourable and civilised respect for the views that I have held for a long time, and if newspaper reports and Tea Room gossip are right, that contrasts with the amateur theatricals and hysterics that have been reported from the office of the Labour Chief Whip. I must make a confession: I stood for election on a manifesto that promised a referendum on this treaty, but we all do things like that. When we stand for election on a party manifesto, we are basically saying that we support that party to form the next Government. It does not mean—it has never been understood to mean this—that we subscribe to every iota of that manifesto. Indeed, I am slightly surprised that a number of my party colleagues appear to have given their own manifesto such minute examination, as I usually give other parties’ manifestos more examination than my own party’s. In making this point, I appeal to my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr. Cash). If he regarded the manifesto as some sort of Biblical truth, he would find it difficult to be here in this House, as would I, and I suspect that an examination of the websites of some of my Conservative colleagues would reveal a declared intention to leave the European Union, which I doubt will appear in the next Conservative manifesto, but as far as I am concerned that should not disqualify them from standing as Conservatives or sustaining the next Conservative Government.