English Votes for English Laws

Robin Millar Excerpts

Tuesday 13th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Robin Millar (Aberconwy) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie).

I speak in support of the motion. I acknowledge the good intentions behind the creation of EVEL and I recognise, too, the anxieties of some of my English colleagues. However, EVEL was born out of an imperfect devolved settlement, or, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (John Redwood) called it, a lopsided settlement. Of course, no settlement is ever perfect, but it was conceived at least in part in an attempt to balance inequities that arose for English voters as a result of the devolved settlement. As a corrective, however, EVEL did not address the root cause and could never therefore have been an enduring or satisfactory solution.

Parliament stands as the expression of the sovereignty of the British people. Therefore, it is not the appropriate vehicle for a particular form of devolution. EVEL diminishes the standing of non-English MPs and by extension, non-English Ministers. It also clouds the perception of our British Parliament, hinting at an English Parliament with non-English MPs strapped on. But that is something we are not.

Voters must know where the buck stops and who to approach for redress. Politicians must agree with one another about who is in charge, something we debate regularly here. A system without such clarity risks being pulled apart. I support the principle of subsidiarity, but standing here today I am clear that an effective and strengthened relationship between this Parliament and devolved and local Administrations, one which would address the worries of underrepresentation in Glasgow, Grimsby or Glanwydden, must be built on clarity and the clear premise that sovereignty lies with and flows from this Parliament.

For this country to thrive in perpetuity, we must never surrender the belief that there is a British people and that their voice is expressed here in this Parliament. We must never allow the principle of one Britain, one vote to be replaced by a precarious balancing act between competing nations. This is reason enough for me to support the motion today. English votes for English laws may have been for some, and for a time, a necessary EVEL, but today I hope its day is done.