European Union (Amendment) Bill

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I want to make a further point about the Conservative party. In those days, when I was forming my own, very strongly pro-European views, the Conservatives were the party of Britain in Europe, and proud to be so—led of course by Ted Heath, who negotiated Britain's entry into the Common Market—and the party that two decades later negotiated and agreed the Maastricht treaty and took that Bill through this House, with no referendum at all. We have heard many right hon. and hon. Members who have served in this House for far longer than I have say that these debates have often felt like a ““Groundhog Day””-style re-run of the Maastricht debates nearly 16 years ago.