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European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, I hesitate to intervene, but the noble Lord, Lord Howell, in attempting to clarify the precise procedure that might be followed in obtaining the support of Parliament, seems—not deliberately, I am sure—to be underemphasising the significance of the requirement in this Bill to obtain the approval of Parliament before these changes can be made. Ex ante, the Government’s executive role is controlled not by the decision that may be taken in a debate, however that debate is initiated, but by the very statute that we are debating tonight. That seems to me to be a profound inhibition on the Government. Although I wholly accept the necessity to put beyond doubt how the debate will be tabled, the fact is that the Government will be prevented from changing the law from what it will be under the Bill that we are debating.