Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effects on the implementation of EU law in the UK of removing the words ever closer union from the preamble to the EU Treaties on Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union.

'Ever Closer Union' has been directly referenced in 23 cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union since 2005. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), has been clear that ever closer union might be right for some, but it is not right for Britain.