EU Referendum: Lessons Learned

Lord Tebbit Excerpts

Monday 20th May 2019 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Hailsham (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords—

[Viscount Hailsham]

My noble friend has referred to deadlock. Does he agree that the answer to that is to hold a further referendum?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

I think I heard the question of my noble friend Lord Hailsham more clearly than the one behind me. I think my noble friend said that we should have another referendum. If he wants another referendum, and if there is enough support for it in the other place—which at the moment looks doubtful—everyone in the other place who wants another referendum should vote for the deal. They can then seek to amend the legislation to facilitate a referendum, but without a deal and without a Bill, you cannot have a referendum.

[Lord Tebbit]

Does my noble friend not agree that the most important thing to decide is that we should never again allow a Government to spend vast amounts of taxpayers’ money on the subject of the referendum immediately before they then declare the campaign open? We had Project Fear last time: a whole load of tax-financed rubbish designed to influence the outcome. That should be prohibited.

[Lord Young of Cookham]

I am not sure whether my noble friend is against referendums.

[Lord Tebbit]

No, I said government spending on one side.

[Lord Young of Cookham]

Ah. The legislation in the PPERA guaranteed that were there to be a referendum, there would be a certain amount of public support for both sides. I think my noble friend is referring to the leaflet issued by the Government. Again, that is in accordance with the legislation, which is exactly what happened in the 1975 referendum: leaflets were issued on the Government’s behalf setting out their view.