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European Union (Amendment) Bill

My difficulty with the right hon. Gentleman's position is that he and many Conservative Members persistently refuse to recognise that the treaty secures so many of the objectives that they claim to support. As was concluded by the senior expert group, of which Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, who I understand advises the right hon. Gentleman's Front-Bench team on national security, is a member, the Lisbon treaty strengthens the position of member states in a number of respects— including the fact that the president of the European Council will serve more than six months, so that it is more than a rotating position. To make a further point, 16 years ago the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash), with whom I have had so many happy exchanges in these debates and who has spoken so eloquently on the matter, was one of only 22 rebels on his party's Back Benches—I think that I am right in recalling that John Major had a rather less flattering name for him and the other rebels. Now, however, the hon. Gentleman is tabling amendments that are virtually identical to the amendment tabled by those on his Front Bench. The debate over the past three weeks has confirmed that the centre of gravity in the Conservative party has fundamentally moved against Britain's membership of the European Union. The Leader of the Opposition has promised—and not changed his promise—to take his MEPs out of the European People's party, isolating himself from centre-right Governments in the European Union and leaving his party with barely a single ally among the Governments or mainstream political parties of the enlarged Union. Indeed, Daniel Hannan, one of the Conservative MEPs, likened the European Parliament's president—a German Christian Democrat—to Adolf Hitler, causing immense offence to conservative colleagues—[Interruption.]