Constitution and Parliament — 30 Nov 1998

I beg to move, as an amendment to the Address, at the end of the Question to add:

'But humbly regret that the Gracious Speech makes no mention of the Government's determination to remove the right of electors to vote for the candidate of their choice in European Parliamentary Elections; deplore both the Government's plans to turn the House of Lords into an enormous quango and also its intention to legislate prior to the conclusions of its own Royal Commission; and further urge the Government to accept the recommendations of the Neill Committee to introduce new rules for the fair conduct of referendums.'.

proportionality . . . A by-election would disturb the element of proportionality that the regional list system brings to the result of the election."--[ Official Report , 5 March 1998; Vol. 307, c. 1247.]

By continuing to say that they will refuse to accept the will of the electorate on the two-stage process, the Tories put themselves in an entirely false position. As we have heard today, they have used the reverse of that argument on the European Parliamentary Elections Bill.

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