Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill — Disapplication of European Communities Act 1972 — rejected — 16 May 2006 at 20:45

The majority No voters rejected a new clause[1] to the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. If passed the new clause would have meant any law passed in the UK relating to the European Union (EU) could not be overridden by EU law. However, it was defeated.

Parliament passed the European Communities Act in 1972 which made Britain a member of the European Economic Community (now the EU). Under this Act laws made by European Treaties have legal effect in UK law[2]. Consequently, the proposed clause aimed to ensure laws made in the UK about the EU could be enacted in spite of the European Communities Act.

The main aims of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill were to allow ministers to amend primary legislation without debate in parliament and reduce the amount of legislation required to implement EU directives[3]. The Conservatives who introduced this clause thought the Bill would be a good opportunity to reduce the influence of EU law on UK law. A similar clause was also introduced into the House of Lords by Lord Waddington but was also defeated[4].

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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 are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

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

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con0 128 (+2 tell)066.3%
DUP0 5055.6%
Independent0 10100.0%
Lab263 (+2 tell) 1075.4%
LDem47 0074.6%
PC3 00100.0%
SNP5 0083.3%
UUP0 10100.0%
Total:318 136072.5%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs 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 MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Kelvin HopkinsLuton NorthLab (minister)aye

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