European Affairs

My right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks, was asked almost exactly the same question at the start of the debate, and he said that we had not ruled that in or out. I know that the hon. Gentleman is a patient man, and he will have to be patient yet. I wish to press the Minister on the working time directive before I conclude. The directive, from which Britain has an opt-out, could affect 3 million people in this country, not least all those who work in the national health service. The opt-out is often referred to as the UK opt-out, despite the fact that some 15 countries around the EU now utilise it. In the crunch vote in the European Parliament in the run-up to Christmas, the majority of Labour MEPs voted to abolish the UK opt-out, even though their own Government ordered them to do differently. They were led in that rebellion by their then Chief Whip, Glenys Willmott, who now leads the Labour MEPs in the European Parliament. Can the Minister assure us that if the matter is returned to in the new European Parliament, all Labour's MEPs will vote to defend the UK opt-out from the working time directive, so that people in this country can choose how many hours in the week they wish to work and not have that dictated to them? Conservative MEPs, led on that issue by Philip Bushill-Matthews, to whom I pay tribute for his work, valiantly defended that opt-out. I should like to know that Labour MEPs would do the same.