Christopher Fraser, MP for South West Norfolk, has sponsored Amendments to the EU Amendment Bill, currently in Committee in the House of Commons, which seek to secure the supremacy of the UK Parliament in the face of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
Christopher Fraser said, “I have been calling for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, not least because the Labour Party made a clear manifesto promise to hold one on the EU Constitution. Gordon Brown has signed up to major shifts of power from Britain to the EU and major changes in the way the EU works. I firmly believe that elected representatives should not give up the powers they were elected to wield without asking the people who elected them first.
“Parliament was promised a detailed and substantive opportunity to debate the EU Amendment Bill, but the Government has abused the parliamentary process to hamper line-by-line scrutiny. The debate on the Bill should be about the supremacy of our Parliament, and whether the voters of this country will be able to govern themselves. The Amendments that I sponsored are an attempt to protect the supremacy of the UK Parliament – I know from my constituency postbag that local people are increasingly frustrated and disillusioned by Directives from Europe.
“As has happened throughout the Bill’s Committee Stage, the Government’s business motion prevented debate on these important Amendments on EU constitutional revision and on legislative and decision making procedures. The Government used its majority to defeat them but I remain determined to keep up the campaign.”
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