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European Union (Amendment) Bill

The right hon. Gentleman is creating an entirely new constitutional principle—namely, that we hold United Kingdom referendums when there is a shift of power. We held no United Kingdom referendums on Scottish or Welsh devolution, and the reason that we did not was that the Government were not sure that they would win. They would certainly have found a lot of English MPs—even on their own side—opposing the proposals. We have no doctrine of referendums in our constitution. He is inventing the doctrine simply to get out of this extremely unwise election promise. He knows perfectly well that the previous Prime Minister should never have cynically promised a referendum in the first place.