European Union Bill — Clause 1 — European Union Referendum Committee — 24 Jan 2011 at 21:45

The majority of MPs voted not to establish a European Union Referendum Committee to recommend to Parliament whether or not to hold a referendum on each EU treaty amendment.

The majority of MPs voted against adding the following text to the end of clause 1[1] of the European Union Bill:

  • '(7A) References to "the Committee" are to the European Union Referendum Committee as established by section [European Union Referendum Committee] below.'.

If the amendments under discussion had been approved, a European Union Referendum Committee would have been introduced, which would have had to recommend to Parliament whether or not to hold a referendum on each EU treaty amendment.

Attacking the amendments in his speech before the division, David Lidlington, Minister for Europe, said[2]:

  • '[the amendments] would deny both Parliament and the people the additional powers and controls which I believe Parliament and people in this country want to see.'

Further, he said:

  • 'If accepted, the Opposition's amendments would leave it open as to whether a move to join the euro was significant, a move to give new competences to the European Union was significant, a move to give up our border controls and take part entirely in a European immigration system was significant, or a move to join a European public prosecutor system was significant.'

The question of significance is important because it is the criterion which determines whether a referendum would have been required.

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
Alliance1 00100.0%
Con277 (+2 tell) 0091.2%
DUP0 1012.5%
Green0 10100.0%
Lab0 209 (+2 tell)081.8%
LDem51 0089.5%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 1033.3%
SNP0 5083.3%
Total:329 220086.0%

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
no rebellions

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