[Philip Davies]
copy, because I did not see any facts in it. If my right hon. Friend is so keen for the facts to be communicated to the British public, will he tell us what the trade deficit between the United Kingdom and the European Union was last year, and what our net contribution to the EU budget is each year? For some reason, those facts seem to be missing from my copy of the document. I am sure that my right hon. Friend would like to put the record straight and apologise for the omission.
Mr Lidington: I think that when the Treasury analysis is published, my hon. Friend will find that it contains a full account of the net contribution in the way that he would expect. As he will know, the calculation of the net contribution is published every year by Her Majesty’s Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con): Who would have thought, this week or any week, that the Labour party would join my own party’s Government in supporting the plutocratic elite, the EU bureaucrats, the investment banks and big business against the people? And we wonder why politics is held in such low regard.
As the Minister will know, the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, today told the German magazine EurActiv that the Government had gone too far in their Brexit concessions, and that the Prime Minister’s so-called negotiation was legally unenforceable and would, in time, be overturned by the European Parliament. Is it purely coincidental that there is little or any reference to the Prime Minister’s renegotiation in this propaganda document?
Mr Lidington: When I have looked at the way in which the February European Council meeting has been reported in the media around Europe, I have seen comments aplenty about this being a big win for United Kingdom diplomacy, and, in some cases, outrage at what people in those countries have seen as a betrayal of federalist ideals. I simply say to my hon. Friend that the President of the European Parliament has made it clear that he wants the deal that was agreed in February to go through and will work to that end, and that the head of the Council Legal Service in the EU has made it clear that the agreement reached in February is legally binding on every member state.
Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con): The Prime Minister promised this country, and the people of this country, a treaty change by 23 June. We have no treaty change, so
the propaganda that the Government have pushed out cannot guarantee 100% that any of the reforms that we have—pathetic though they are—will exist in law. The moment we are consumed by the EU, if we vote to stay in, MEPs and the European Court will have the power to change what we have tried to do.
Mr Lidington: What was agreed in February, including the aspects of the agreement that require amendment to the European Union treaties, takes the form of an international law decision which is legally binding on every one of the 28 EU member states, and which cannot be changed unless there is unanimous agreement from all those 28, including the United Kingdom. That is why I am very confident that this will go through.
Tom Pursglove (Corby) (Con): Will the Minister tell us whether any EU funds were involved in the production of the leaflets, and what procurement processes were involved in both the website and the leaflets? I ask because whoever agreed to a £3 million contract for a website and spent that money was ripped off—and that is a fact.
Mr Lidington: The money is coming out of the Cabinet Office’s departmental spending, and, to the best of my knowledge, no EU funds are involved. The President of the European Commission has made it very clear on more than one occasion that he thinks it would be wrong for the Commission to participate, as an institution, in the British referendum campaign.
Mrs Anne Main (St Albans) (Con): On a point of order, Mr Speaker.
James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con): On a point of order, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker: We will come to points of order, but I wish first to deal with the next matter on my agenda. If Members are patient, they will be heard ere long. In a moment, I shall call the shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the hon. Member for Wallasey (Ms Eagle), to make an application for leave to propose a debate on a specific and important matter which she believes should have urgent consideration under the terms of Standing Order No. 24. The hon. Lady has up to three minutes in which to make such an application.
