European Union Referendum Bill

Paul Farrelly Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. When the electorate considers the stated positions of the parties, I would advise them to look not only at the positions they hold today but at the depth of the roots that sustain those positions.

[Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

Does the Foreign Secretary believe that, when the Prime Minister completes these unspecified negotiations and decides to campaign for a yes in the referendum, my next-door neighbour the hon. Member for Stone (Sir William Cash) and his allies who held the Major Government hostage will ever be satisfied?

[Mr Hammond]

I will let my hon. Friend the Member for Stone speak for himself in the course of the debate. I am sure, however, that he will await—with a healthily sceptical approach—the return of the Prime Minister from Brussels with that package, and that he will consider it carefully and analytically, safe in the knowledge that underpinning this whole process is an absolute commitment to allow the British people to have the final say on this issue in an in/out referendum.

--- Later in debate ---

[Hilary Benn]

My hon. Friend makes a powerful point as to why the franchise should be extended.

[Paul Farrelly]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Prime Minister was not forced to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in the Scottish referendum? He agreed that that would happen, so what is different now? Why should English and Welsh 16 and 17-year-olds, and Scottish 16 and 17-year-olds, be treated differently for this referendum?

[Hilary Benn]

I agree completely with my hon. Friend. When the Minister for Europe winds up the debate, perhaps he will give the House an explanation as to why the Government are not minded to move on this issue.

After taking evidence on the subject last year, the British Youth Council Youth Select Committee said:

“We are very proud of the democracy in which we live and of its history and traditions. We are absolutely convinced that 16 and 17 year olds have the aptitude and the appetite to take a full part in that democracy.”

I agree. This House has debated on many occasions how we can encourage more young people—the Foreign Secretary made the point about the lower rate of participation—to participate in our public and political life. How can we get more young people involved in our democratic life? What better way to do so than to give 16 and 17-year-olds the opportunity to take part in this momentous decision, which will affect their lives and their futures just as much as it will affect ours?

--- Later in debate ---

[Paul Farrelly]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

[Alex Salmond]

Yes, for the last time.

[Paul Farrelly]

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the Conservative Government are playing into his hands in alienating 16 and 17-year-olds in Scotland from decisions taken in this Parliament?

[Alex Salmond]

Both the Conservative and Labour parties have played into the Scottish National party’s hands on many occasions, but this issue is so important that I appeal to the Foreign Secretary not to play into our hands but to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the referendum.

Then there is the question of European citizens. Why should they not have a vote in this referendum? We allowed European citizens to vote in the Scottish referendum because our view of nationality has a civic basis. Unlike Conservative Members, with their narrow-minded nationalism and narrow view of people’s interests, we take a broad view of the matter. We believe in civic nationalism—we believe that if someone engages in a country, lives in a country, works in a country and pays tax in a country, they are entitled to vote on the future of the country.

We have a Member of the Scottish Parliament, Christian Allard, who is my MSP—the Member for North East Scotland. I go to Christian whenever I have a difficulty across the north-east of Scotland that requires resolution. He is a fine, distinguished Member of the Scottish Parliament, but he is to be denied a vote in the European referendum. He has been in Scotland for 25 years, contributing to our community. Why on earth should he be denied a vote?

The franchise to be used is not the general election franchise, because Members of the House of Lords are to be empowered to vote. I know that Conservative Members are frightfully worried about the idea of prisoners being accorded the right to vote because of the European convention, but there are six ex-prisoners in the House of Lords who will be enfranchised by the Foreign Secretary’s proposals. The Foreign Secretary says, “Of course Members of the House of Lords should be able to vote. However, this is an advisory, not a binding, referendum. The House of Lords will have its say on whether a proposal is enacted after the referendum.” However, the Government cannot say that it is to be a general election franchise and then start to change the franchise.

What about the position of other Europeans? It is not the case that all other European citizens are to be denied a vote in the referendum. Citizens of the Irish Republic will have a vote. So will citizens of Malta and Cyprus, because of the Commonwealth entitlement. How can it be argued that some European citizens should be able to vote but others should not? [Interruption.] The Foreign Secretary says it is simple: I suggest—and I say this with some experience of having to conduct a franchise that can be defended in the courts —that the argument that some European citizens but not others should be included will be extremely difficult to sustain if subjected to challenge in the courts. I warn him that he will not find it as easy as just saying to the House that it is obvious that some people should be given the vote and some should be denied it.

On the question of the double majority or quad lock, why should it be the case that Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland—or, for that matter, England—should be taken out of the European Union against the will of that nation? [Interruption.] From a sedentary position, the Foreign Secretary says that it is because we are a United Kingdom, but it was the Prime Minister who said only last September that the essence of the United Kingdom was that it was an equal partnership of nations. He said that we in Scotland should lead the United Kingdom: he did not say that we should leave Europe. Of course, it would be outrageous, disgraceful, undemocratic and unacceptable to drag Scotland out of the European Union against the wishes and will of the Scottish people.

--- Later in debate ---

[Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

May I congratulate all the new Members who have made their maiden speeches today or are about to do so? There has been no more important debate so far in this Parliament in which to do so.

I chair the all-party British-German group here at Westminster, and on the morning after a difficult, disappointing election for Labour the German ambassador was kind enough to call me to congratulate me on retaining my seat in Newcastle-under-Lyme. During that call, I said that I feared the first casualty of the election result, policy-wise, would be our stance on the European Union referendum. I regret that it has been, but I understand the politics behind it.

I still think, however, that my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) showed great courage in not joining the chase for an in/out referendum on the EU. Like him and the very experienced right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke), I think it is a reckless gamble with our country’s future and its place in the world, hastily conceived by the Prime Minister to throw red meat to the anti-Europeans in his party. They, of course, have just wolfed it up, snarled for more and will never be sated until Britain leaves. The referendum will clearly happen now, and despite Labour’s change of stance, I am glad that we will make the same argument that we made in 1975—that membership of the EU is in the best economic interests of our country’s trade, jobs and investment.

For many of us, membership cannot simply be reduced to statistics without regard to the history of war after war in Europe before 1945 and peace through dialogue, co-operation and more unity since. In my late teens and early 20s, I worked closely with the German War Graves Commission, organising camps for young people from across Europe and tending war cemeteries in Berlin during the time of the Wall, when reconciliation in Europe simply could not be taken for granted. The original connection came through the German war cemetery in Staffordshire, at Cannock Chase, which stands next to our Commonwealth war memorial.

My father was an immigrant, who came from Ireland in the 1950s, and his decent, generous employer, Hubert Steiner, was a former Luftwaffe pilot who had been shot down and interned at Cannock. He fell in love with a local girl through the wire, stayed after the war and built a great local contracting and engineering business.

Working in Berlin between school and university, one of my great joys was playing chess with a colleague, Willi Lotz, who was then in his 60s. Willi could only do light shop work, because his withered arm had been shot to pieces on the Russian front in a battle that had claimed the lives of all his company. In 1961, months before the wall, Willi and his wife left the east for the west, going to West Germany. Now a united Germany plays the fullest part in the European Union, remembers its history and needs Britain as an ally now and in the future.

Later on, when I joined Reuters as a journalist in 1990, the civil war in the former Yugoslavia was about to erupt. I cannot help but think now that if Croatia, Serbia and the other republics were to join Slovenia in dialogue and co-operation with the EU, such a conflagration simply would not happen again. For the Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—joining the EU in 2004, as much as joining NATO, was an expression of their desire to be part of a union that guaranteed peace in our time and in the future. Like it or not, Britain plays a vital role in the European Union, and it would be simply unforgiveable to our country, and all our European neighbours, if we withdrew.

Turning to the economics, in my area we have Siemens in Congleton, Bentley, owned by Volkswagen, in Crewe, and Toyota in Derby. All those companies believe that it would be bad for investment, jobs and Britain if we withdrew. Indeed, as soon as the Prime Minister announced the intended referendum, one of our local companies put on hold an £80 million, 10-year investment because the political risk was simply too great.

In the Potteries, we have regular meetings with the local ceramics industry, at which there are endless discussions about EU carbon and environmental regulations. It is frustrating fighting our corner in Brussels, but the thought never seriously occurs that if we simply break away, we can be free of the burdens of the rules while being able to trade in a single market without any tariffs.

Our biggest local employer in the Potteries is now bet365, which owns Stoke City. It does not want 28 different sets of gaming regulations in 28 countries—that would be bad for business. It wants us to remain in the EU, arguing from the inside and leading by example to extend the single market in the future. That will be good for business and good for Britain.

I was elected chair of the British-Norwegian group this week. Norway, for its own reasons—fish and oil—has decided to remain outside the EU, but that is in name only. To access the single market, Norway complies with its provisions and contributes to its funds, but—unlike Britain—it has no say at the negotiating table or in decision making. Becoming a Norway or a Switzerland would not be a panacea or an answer if Britain were to leave the EU but wished to retain the benefits of a single market.

To conclude, I turn back to an event at the German embassy a couple of years ago. An animated discussion about our place in the EU took place, including the Indian High Commissioner and the Chinese chargé d’affaires. Neither of the representatives of those huge and growing countries and markets could fathom why Britain would want to leave a market of 500 million people and strike out on its own in the world today. We would have no clout and no place, unlike our combined European neighbours, at their negotiating tables. I hope all parties will join a coalition of common sense in this campaign for an emphatic yes when the referendum is held.