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The letter has been drafted by Bernard Jenkin, one of the party’s most senior figures&Photo: IAN JONES FOR THE TELEGRAPH
By , Political Correspondent
Parliament must be given the power to veto every aspect of EU law, 95
Conservative MPs demand in a letter to David Cameron.
In a major intervention, the backbenchers have written to the Prime Minister
urging him to change the law to give the Commons authority to block new EU
legislation and repeal existing measures that threaten Britain&s &national
interests&.
Such powers would enable the Government to reverse the spread of human rights
law, relieve businesses of red tape from Brussels and regain control over
immigration, they say. They believe the veto is possible with a new Act of
Parliament.
At least six more Tory MPs back the letter, but are unable formally to put
their names to its demands & some because they are in government jobs.
David Cameron has promised to renegotiate the terms of Britain&s relationship
with Brussels and put the arrangement before voters in a referendum by 2017,
which would give the public the option to leave the European Union.
The letter reflects mounting frustration among Conservative MPs at the Prime
Minister&s failure to spell out his vision for a new Europe.
Details of the letter have emerged at a highly sensitive time for Mr Cameron,
at the start of a week when the issue of EU reform is expected to dominate
the political agenda. It comes as:
& Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, demands &a completely new
relationship with the EU&, reforming benefits, migration and employment
laws. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph today he calls for &a radical
new approach to human rights laws&;
& Peter Cruddas, the former Conservative Party Treasurer, says that as a
businessman he believes Europe &has to change&. Writing in today&s business
section, he says Britain has a &once in a lifetime opportunity to reverse
two decades of misrule&;
& George Osborne prepares to address a major two-day conference on EU reform,
held by two campaign groups, Open Europe and the Fresh Start Project. The
Chancellor will argue that although Britain is better off remaining inside a
reformed EU, the UK has major allies in pushing for change.
The MPs& demand for a national veto signals a decisive end to the fragile
truce between Mr Cameron and his colleagues over Europe, which has held
since the Prime Minister agreed last May to support a Bill paving the way
for an in/out referendum on EU membership.
The Tory MPs fear the Bill will be blocked in the House of Lords by Labour and
Lib Dem peers and have decided to demand alternative action.
The letter has been drafted by Bernard Jenkin, one of the party&s most senior
figures. The total number of MPs who have registered their backing for the
campaign in Westminster stands at 101.
MPs who have signed the letter include James C Conor B John
B Anne Main and Sir Gerald Howarth, the former Defence Minister.
Several Eurosceptic ministers, including Cabinet ministers, also privately
support the call for a national veto, The Sunday Telegraph understands.
Currently, Parliament has no automatic veto over EU laws. The Prime Minister
can use Britain&s veto to block only the most sensitive European plans &
such as on defence and the EU budget & during summit negotiations with other
national leaders in Brussels.
A growing number of laws and decisions are made in Brussels without any
guarantee that Britain can stop them, as they require the support of only a
&qualified majority& of EU member governments to be passed.
A committee of MPs which scrutinises EU laws last month recommended that a
national veto be introduced. But David Lidington, the Europe Minister, has
rejected the idea of one national parliament being able to veto EU plans.
However, the MPs& letter, sent to the Prime Minister this weekend, calls on Mr
Cameron to adopt the policy.
&Each time you have stood up for British interests in Brussels, you have
achieved a great deal,& it says.
&Building on your achievements, we would urge you to back the European
Scrutiny Committee proposal and make the idea of a national veto over
current and future EU laws a reality.&
The letter states that a new national veto over EU laws would &enable
Parliament to disapply EU legislation, where it is in our vital national
interests to do so&.
It adds: &This would transform the UK&s negotiating position in the EU.& The
letter says the veto & which would require a new Act of Parliament & could
be used to deliver key reforms to Britain&s relations with Europe.
These include making it possible to gain control over immigration from within
the EU, which is currently unlimited. Mr Cameron has said he wants the right
for workers to have free movement within the EU to be &qualified&.
The veto would also make it easier for Britain to regain control over the
application of European employment and social laws, as well as to gain &a
complete opt out& from the EU charter of fundamental rights.
In their letter, the MPs are careful to praise the Prime Minister and offer
him their &fullest support& for his insistence that national parliaments,
not bureaucrats in Brussels, are &the true source& of democratic legitimacy
in the EU.
&However, clarity about how we will achieve these objectives is vital for our
credibility,& the letter says.
The Tory leadership has known of the growing demands for Parliament to be
given sovereign power to block EU laws in the form of a veto for several
However, some MPs believe Mr Cameron is &in denial& over the strength of
feeling inside the party and in the country. Conservative whips are said to
have warned MPs not to sign the letter.
Mr Jenkin, the chairman of the Commons public administration select committee,
said the identities of all 95 formal signatories are included in the letter
but most of the names are not intended to be made public. The support for
the letter reaches well beyond the 30 disgruntled Tories who are regarded as
serial rebels.
It eclipses the rebellion which saw 81 Tories defy the party whip to back
calls for an EU referendum in 2011.
In an article for The Sunday Telegraph today, Mr Jenkin says: &The
privately declared supporters of this letter represent more than half the
back benches. &We speak for the mainstream of the modern Conservative Party
in Parliament and in our constituencies, and for the voting public, both in
the UK and throughout Europe.&
Graham Brady, the chairman of the Tory Party&s backbench 1922 Committee, which
is responsible for overseeing Conservative leadership elections, said he
supported the calls made in the letter.
Mr Brady, the MP for Altrincham and Sale West, declined to say whether he had
signed the letter, but said he &strongly& supported the call for a national
&Recent events relating to control of our borders have highlighted the
problems that arise when the British Parliament does not have ultimate
control of British laws,& he said. Dominic Raab, the Tory MP for Esher and
Walton, a signatory, said: &It is vital to send a message to Brussels that
we are serious about renegotiation and that the status quo just isn&t an
A spokesman for No 10 said the Government would study the letter &closely& but
warned that a national veto would cause major problems for trade. &We need
to look at what it would mean in practice. We&ve always been clear that
Parliament is sovereign and more power for national parliaments must be a
key part of a new settlement,& the spokesman said.
&But if individual national parliaments regularly and unilaterally
overturned EU laws the single market wouldn&t work and even a Swiss-style
free trade deal with the EU wouldn&t be possible.&
The Prime Minister is &the only one of the three main party leaders committed
to giving the British people an in/out referendum on membership of a
reformed EU&, the spokesman added.
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