Only a Sovereignty Bill can restore to Parliament its mandate

Bill Cash @ Critical Reaction:"The fundamental issue at the heart of concerns over the sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament is the freedom of choice – the choice of the voters to decide the laws under which they are to be governed and to deal with the question of who governs Britain. The issue of Parliamentary sovereignty is essentially a practical question, not a theological one, and effects every voter and every man, woman and child in the country on a daily basis and in a very direct way.

"European legislation invades every nook and cranny of our daily lives and on any reasonable estimate affects at least 70% of the vast array of laws. New legislation floods from the European Union like a tsunami, as I witness in the European Scrutiny Committee every week. It includes criminal law, state aids, financial regulation, relations with Russia and internal security, burdens on business, overregulation, the rules governing the dreadful state of our public finances, the debt levels and questions of public expenditure through to the absurdly named Stability and Growth Pact which provides neither stability, nor growth nor a pact. It affects the whole of our justice and criminal law. It affects the regulation of the City of London and the role of the Bank of England and financial services. It affects family law. It affects the CAP, the CFP, the rebate, regional policy making, energy policy, consequences of immigration and the £2000 for each man, woman and child which the EU costs according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance, and the newly unacceptable proposals for enlargement involving countries who are neither appropriate allies nor intrinsically democratic.

"So, the protection of our sovereignty is essential. The sovereignty of Parliament has been and continues to be under serious threat. Apart from the contempt with which the Government treats Parliament by drastic guillotining of Bills and manipulation of committees, there is as well the fundamental question of the undermining of parliamentary sovereignty by the European Union and the European Court of Justice through the European Communities Act 1972. Through the use of majority voting, the requirements under the 1972 Act and the making of European regulations, the legislative programme of the British Parliament and therefore the British voter is under an absolute obligation to accept European laws whatever the impact.

"David Cameron has proposed a Sovereignty Bill within this framework because he recognises the dangers we are in. In the interests of what this Sovereignty Bill might mean, I introduced a debate in Parliament and drafted a legally-watertight United Kingdom Parliamentary Sovereignty Bill as a standard for how the Conservative Party might seek to draft its Sovereignty Bill. I have full confidence that my Bill reaffirms the sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament. It asserts that ‘No Minister of the Crown shall sign, ratify or implement any treaty or law,’ which does not reaffirm sovereignty. My Bill states that if legislation seeks to increase the functions of the European Union affecting the United Kingdom it must then require it to be approved in a referendum of the electorate. The referendum is essential as it gives the Parliament a mandate on behalf of the British people. The Bill also demands that the Queen shall not signify her Royal Assent to any Bill which contravenes the Act until that Bill has been approved by both Houses of Parliament, and has also been approved in a referendum of the electorate in the United Kingdom, which itself must be issued by Parliament. The proposal, therefore, for an effective Sovereignty Bill is right, it is in the public interest and it is vital for the re-establishment of democracy for our deteriorating Parliament."