Henry Smith MP joined over 100 other Conservative MPs on 27th June 2012 in signing a letter calling on the Coalition Government to hold a referendum on our membership of the European Union.  Almost three months later, he and his colleagues have yet to receive a satisfactory response.

Henry commented:

“It’s clear that a majority of people in Crawley and across the country want a say on whether the UK remains a member of the EU. And why not?  That’s why last year I voted with 80 other Conservative MPs in the biggest Commons rebellion since the Second World war for a public say.

“I had just turned six years old when the last referendum on Europe was held and that was, we were told at the time, to join a free trading area – the Common Market. Since 1975 the EEC evolved into to EC and now the centralising, fundamentally undemocratic, political construct of the EU. I sit on the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee and see with my own eyes, and in often dismay, the significant level of directives and legislative demands emanating from the EU.  

“It’s often said that people care more about health, employment, the economy, education, taxation and so on more than our relationship with the EU. Yet what the EU does effects almost every aspect of our lives, therefore, on this fundamental constitutional question we need the British people to decide.

“A recent Populus poll found that 8 in 10 Britons want a referendum on our membership.  The backroom deals of the Coalition Government on the issue need to give way to the democratic will of the majority of the British public.   

“I have joined a newly founded parliamentary body which pulls together MPs from across the political spectrum to fight for a commitment from all three mainstream parties to hold a referendum in the next Parliament.”