European Union (Amendment) Bill

I will not give way to the hon. Gentleman, because I am sure that there are many people in the House who would like me to stop as soon possible. The Conservative party’s position is that if the Bill is passed and the treaty is ratified, they will not let the matter rest there, to use the phrase that was leaked over the Christmas period. Let us enter Planet Cameron for a moment and imagine what would happen if there were a Conservative Government. Let us imagine the Leader of the Opposition becoming Prime Minister and going to his first European Council, having chosen not to let the matter rest there. He would turn to the new President of Europe and say, ““Tony, as I’m your heir, could you possibly let us have a new treaty? Oh, and I apologise to you, Mr. Rodriguez Zapatero, Mr. Sarkozy and Mrs. Merkel, for not co-operating with your political parties or your Governments over the past few years, but it would be nice if you signed up to a different form of treaty.”” That would not happen. Instead, he would do exactly what the Liberal Democrats did last week—walk out of the room. That just goes to show that the Conservative position is not that of a potential future Government. The Conservative party’s foreign policy is the foreign policy of an Opposition party who know perfectly well that they will remain in opposition. Let me turn to the Liberal Democrats—