Hansard

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs for her welcome. It will indeed be fun for me, after nine years shadowing the health portfolio, to share a different portfolio and to lock horns with her.

My speech will not outline the Conservative Party position. The cabinet secretary was perfectly correct to identify that the leaders of all political parties are in favour of remain, as I am, but I am advocating a personal position.

It has been 40 years since the previous referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. In 1975, 67 per cent of people said yes and 32 per cent said no. In fact, the only areas to vote no in that contest anywhere in the United Kingdom were Mr Allan’s Western Isles constituency and Mr Scott’s Shetland Islands constituency.

The turnout in 1975 was 65 per cent. There is a question mark about whether people are sufficiently engaged to ensure that we have a turnout of that level this time. It is important that we do because, as the cabinet secretary said, this is a fundamental decision.

The referendum in 1975 was the last vote in which I did not participate. After that, I was old enough to vote, but at 16 in 1975 I was able to watch the debate with interest.

When I hear many people who talk about leaving suggest that that would lead to some sort of economic utopia for Britain, I think back to 1975—and an economic and social utopia it was not. The legacy in the minds of some might be the music of Slade, T Rex, Wizzard, Roxy Music and David Bowie, but the top-rated television programmes, which show how distant life now is from then, were “Till Death Us Do Part” and “The Black and White Minstrel Show”. It was a very different Britain in a very different age. At that time, our industrial record measured the working days that were lost through dispute in millions.

When we look back to the vote 40 years ago, it is important to remember that the second world war had taken place only 30 years earlier. For many of my grandparents’ generation, who had fought and raised families during conflicts, the European alliance held the prospect of a permanent peace and a degree of co-operation.

Although the fears that existed in 1975 proved to be unrealised, we in Europe sat next to the Soviet Union, and there was a perceptible and genuine fear of further conflict across the European mainland. The European project and participation in what was then the European Economic Community were seen to be a decisive step forward for the country. In that, we were correct: what were the battlefields of Europe are now the holiday playgrounds of Europeans. That is a significant change in life across the European continent, but people too easily dismiss it as irrelevant and set it aside as if it were inevitable.

The economy was broken in 1975; I do not remember it prospering. We had just come from the three-day week, in which businesses could work for only three days. I remember the power cuts and candles in the home. I remember Edward Heath saying:

“Britain has reached the end of the road”

and

“The rest of the world is very sorry, but the rest of the world regrets it is unable to oblige any longer”.

I remember the Labour Party having to return from crisis meetings at the International Monetary Fund.

Forty years on, our nation is transformed not despite or because of but within the European Union. All the progress that we have made as a nation has been made within the EU. I do not argue that all our success is due to the EU—far from it—but membership was born from exceptional political courage here. The idea that the EU has somehow acted as a brake on our prosperity and interfered with all our economic, taxation and industrial policy is absolute nonsense.

In the EU, the UK drove through the single market, which has been the key economic driver of change. It is easy to forget the queues of lorries that were at every border post in every European nation; lorries sometimes had to wait for days before they could transport goods between countries of Europe. All that has been swept aside. Britain has been on the winning side of much of the argument about how we transform and develop Europe and policy in Europe in the past 40 years.

I hear some colleagues talk about a colossal loss of sovereignty, but I sometimes do not know how sovereignty is defined. Does it mean that we should seal our borders or stick it to anyone who has an interest in human rights? I do not know whether that is what is meant by sovereignty. In my life, day-to-day policy, whether it be education, health, economic or taxation policy, has been decided here or at Westminster, without any great interference from Europe. In meaningful terms, sovereignty over policy in this country rests with people in this country. Interference from Europe is sometimes exaggerated for effect—the dead hand of Europe—rather than referred to in realistic terms.

On justice issues and on some rural economy and border issues, there are fights to be had, but they are far better addressed by our being in the EU and arguing our case than by biting off our nose to spite our face.