European Union (Referendum) Bill — Wording of Referendum Question — 24 Jan 2014 at 12:30

Baroness Massey of Darwen voted for the question for the referendum of the UK's membership of the EU to be "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?" rather than "Do you think that the United Kingdom should be a member of the European Union?"

The majority of members of the House of Lords voted in favour of the question for the referendum of the UK's membership of the EU being "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?" rather than "Do you think that the United Kingdom should be a member of the European Union?"

Members of the House of Lords were considering the European Union (Referendum) Bill[1] The amendment accepted in this vote was:

  • Amendment 1: Clause 1, page 1, line 2, leave out subsection (1) and insert:

“(1) A referendum is to be held with the question— “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?” appearing on the ballot papers.”

at the time of the vote subsection (1) stated:

  • A referendum is to be held on the United Kingdom’s membership of the

European Union.

Subsection (4) stated:

  • The question that is to appear on the ballot papers is— “Do you think that the United Kingdom should be a member of the European Union?”

As the approved amendment alone would have left the Bill containing two different questions presumably the intent would have been to make a consequential amendment removing subsection (4). Amendment 28[2] would in-fact have had such an effect and it was subsequently agreed without a vote[3].

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Content)Minority (Not-Content)Turnout
Con3 145 (+2 tell)65.5%
Crossbench26 (+2 tell) 316.2%
Independent Labour0 1100.0%
Judge1 06.7%
Lab137 161.1%
LDem67 065.0%
PC1 050.0%
UKIP0 266.7%
UUP0 150.0%
Total:235 15350.8%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

Lords for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible lord who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Party | Vote

NamePartyVote
Lord Bowness Con (front bench)aye
Lord Inglewood Con (front bench)aye
Lord Tugendhat Con (front bench)aye
Lord Jones of BirminghamCrossbenchno
Lord Kilclooney Crossbenchno
Lord Powell of BayswaterCrossbench (front bench)no
Lord Moonie Labno

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