European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, if it comes as a shock to the Conservative Party, it is even slower thinking than I first thought it was. I assure noble Lords that these Benches, with their record on Europe, are not going to fall into any Conservative elephant traps. The noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, knows as well as I do that the arithmetic of the Commons and the arithmetic of the Lords are different. A Commons abstention can be perfectly acceptable, and there are several examples of us voting in different ways in the Commons and the Lords, as have the Conservatives. You can throw all the abuse you like, but I am determined—because I am not playing for the short term but believe passionately, as I have believed for 40 years, that the time has come to move on from this constitutional navel-gazing and short-term political opportunism—to put Britain on the road to playing a full part in a Europe relevant to the problems of the 21st century. That is how we will vote and that is how we will work in Committee.