Privately, the Conservatives are probably not particularly surprised about the demise of Bob Neill’s EU referendum bill, this time at the hands of the Liberal Democrats. It was always a Downing Street ruse to help quell backbench rebellion and senior Tories have ever since viewed the progress both of this bill and its predecessor, led by James Wharton, as an opportunity to cheer up the backbenches with bacon butty breakfasts and so on.
Of course, it had a political point, now well proven, which was that only the the Conservatives want to let Britain decide its continued membership of the EU. That both Labour and the Lib Dems have blocked the bills now helps the Conservatives make that point on the doorstep.
The latest failure was because the Tories refused to agree to a money resolution for Lib Dem Andrew George’s bill amending the ‘bedroom tax’. This perhaps shows that the Conservatives would rather see their EU bill go down the plug hole than admit they got the design of that housing benefit cut wrong. But the EU bill was going to die anyway at some point.
Still, Michael Gove has sent a rather robust ‘Dear Colleague’ letter to MPs. You can read the letter, which was passed to Coffee House, in full below. That he ends it by saying the party should now shift its focus on Fridays to campaigning does hint at some of the frustration MPs in marginal seats felt at being dragged away from their constituencies on a Friday to vote on a doomed bill.
Dear Colleague,
I am writing to tell you that today the Liberal Democrats have killed Bob Neill’s European Union (Referendum) Bill.
As you are aware, the Prime Minister plans to negotiate a better deal for Britain in Europe, and then to put that new deal to the British people in an in-out referendum before the end of 2017. That’s because we believe the British people should decide our future in Europe. Bob Neill’s Private Member’s Bill would have put this referendum onto the statute book. But Labour and now the Liberal Democrats have blocked it.
With Bob’s Bill coming third in the ballot, it was always going to be very difficult to pass it. But until now we had hoped that our Liberal Democrat colleagues would play fair by granting this Bill the critical money resolution it needs to proceed into committee – as they did for James Wharton’s Bill last year. We also hoped that they might make the Bill a government Bill which would have guaranteed its safe passage through the Commons a second time. The Liberal Democrats refused.
They asked instead that we give them permission to go ahead with a measure – the Affordable Homes Bill – which would cost up to £1 billion and unravel our welfare reform programme. We could not support this because it would have meant more borrowing, more debt and more people on benefits rather than in work.
So, because we insisted the Liberal Democrats stick to their previous promises on cutting the deficit and reforming welfare, they sabotaged Bob’s Bill.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats’ message is clear – they do not trust the British people to decide our country’s future in Europe. And UKIP can’t deliver a referendum at all. So if you want to have an in-out referendum, the only way that’s going to happen is by voting Conservative next May and having David Cameron as Prime Minister.
Our focus on Fridays therefore must return to campaigning long and hard across the country – to secure the Conservative majority government which will deliver the in-out referendum we all want to see.
Chief Whip
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