The European Union (Referendum) Bill is now before the House of Lords for its Second Reading. I am currently in the Chamber listening to the debate, along with a number of Conservative colleagues.
This marks a crucial day on the road to an ‘in/out’ vote that so many of us would like to see. Whilst Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians have attempted to delay and halt the Bill’s process at every step, the simple fact is that the British public have not been given an opportunity to voice their opinion on this issue for forty years.
Whatever your views on Europe, it is simply wrong to deny people the vote on whether we should remain members of an international body that has such a large and increasingly widespread influence over our domestic policy. A referendum before 2017 would give the Government more scope to negotiate our place within Europe and, more importantly, it will allow people to decide for themselves, once and for all, whether Europe is right for Britain.
Although I suspect the Bill will face opposition as this debate proceeds, I find it difficult to believe that an unelected House of Lords will contemplate blocking it.
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2013-14/europeanunionreferendum.html