Many of my constituents have told me of their concern about the European Union and how its powers have expanded into areas which people never expected when Britain joined the Common Market in 1972.
Throughout my time in public life I have rigorously opposed unacceptable expansion of EU powers. I campaigned vigorously against UK membership of the Euro, against the European constitution and against the Nice and Lisbon Treaties.
The ability of the Conservatives to respond to people’s concerns on Europe is limited by the fact that we are part of a Coalition with the Lib Dems who have always been enthusiastic about further European integration. Nevertheless, we are taking action where we can.
The Home Secretary has announced that we plan to exercise our right to opt out of all EU measures on Justice and Home Affairs, and then decide which provisions to opt back into. The increasing involvement of the EU in criminal matters has long been a concern of mine and I welcome the Home Secretary’s robust approach.
David Cameron was the first ever UK Prime Minister to veto an EU Treaty. He has also secured the first ever real terms cut in the EU budget. Under the current seven year framework, which runs out this year, the EU’s credit card limit was £816bn; and the European Commission wanted to increase it to £855bn. Instead, we have achieved an agreement to cut it to £785bn meaning that we have sliced £30bn from the limit agreed by the previous Government.
We have introduced a referendum lock to ensure that in future, no significant powers can be passed from Britain to Brussels without the consent of the British People in a national referendum. It would now be illegal for Ministers of any government to act as Labour did when they broke their promise to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Most importantly of all, the next Conservative manifesto will ask the British people for a mandate to renegotiate our relationship with Europe and then give them a referendum on whether we stay in the EU or leave.