Bill Cash MP: Repeal the Human Rights Act – This is what we were elected for

Bill Cash is MP for Stone and Chairman of the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee.

The Conservative manifesto, on which all Conservative MPs campaigned at the General Election in 2010, stated:

“To protect our freedoms from state encroachment and encourage greater social responsibility, we will replace the Human Rights Act with a UK Bill of Rights.”

It is reported that Nick Clegg has reversed this: I am informed that the Human Rights Act will not be repealed and there will be no proper reform of our position towards the European Convention on Human Rights. When I was Shadow Attorney-General, I recommended, and my party accepted, that we repeal the Human Rights Act. It should not be up to judges to decide on crucial matters in our national interest.

It was clear Nick Clegg already got his way when the Coalition Agreement stated:

“We will establish a Commission to investigate the creation of a British Bill of Rights that incorporates and builds on all our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, ensures that these rights continue to be enshrined in British law, and protects and extends British liberties. We will seek to promote a better understanding of the true scope of these obligations and liberties.”

That Commission has just been announced.

If the Commission is to look into a British Bill of Rights which deals with neither repealing the Human Rights Act or dealing with the European Convention on Human Rights, then what will it look into? In fact, it will be dangerous because a Commission suggests that they are dealing with the problem when in fact they are not. I said at the time how dismayed I was about the Coalition Agreement’s uprooting of our manifesto commitment.

Bill Cash MP: Time to tackle the enemies of enterprise that come from Europe

It is encouraging that David Cameron, in his Spring Forum speech, has focused on enterprise and growth – and that at a parliamentary meeting on the Budget only a few weeks ago, several of us emphasised that growth was key to reducing the deficit and not merely the importance of cuts which, where justified, should be accompanied by cuts in taxation as well.

However, it is simply not credible to set out a stall for growth without fundamentally cutting back on European regulation. The Government itself admits – as I have said repeatedly in debates – that at least 50 per cent of all economic regulation comes from the European Union and this does not even take account of the vast impact of the unacceptable transfer of financial regulation over the City of London and the UK to European jurisdiction, against which I have argued for several years in debate and which will cause immense damage to our competitiveness.

The promises made by David Cameron in the Centre for Policy Studies lecture of 2005 stating that “For Britain, the first priority must be the return of powers over employment and social regulation … This would be the strategic imperative of my European policy” and pledges during the leadership election which preceded that, must be rigorously followed through if the claims for economic growth and helping small businesses are not to be hollow. This is well overdue – as I made clear in my pamphlet The Strangulation of Britain and British Business (European Foundation, 2004); as Peter Mandelson, the then EU Trade Commissioner, said in a speech to the CBI, that EU red tape cost about 4% of GDP, and; as the EU’s Enterprise Commissioner Gunther Verheugen said in a 2006 interview with the FT that EU legislation now costs European business €600 billon (£405 billion) a year. Overall, we are told that EU regulation has cost the country over £124 billion since 1998. So, it is simply is not good enough to argue for deregulation without taking action on the European dimension and effectively – this includes the Working Time Directive in its entirety.

Bill Cash MP: A Conservative Party health warning on Europe

Bill Cash is MP for Stone and Chairman of the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee.

It was always obvious Labour were going to win Barnsley Central – but the result sends a clear message to the Coalition and the Conservative Party on their failure to deal with the European issue. 

The Conservatives lost out in the 2010 General Election because, amongst other factors, the intervention of UKIP costs us 21 seats – and on that basis we did not get a Conservative Government. This is well established. But now, under the Coalition Agreement, the Liberal Democrats (“the sixth placers”) are wagging the Conservative tail on constitutional matters and on European issues.

Labour got 14,724 votes in this by-election, extending their majority slightly – yet the turnout fell to 36.5%, compared with 56.4% in the 2010 General Election. To be clear: the real Barnsley message is one of trend and although the votes cast were low, the reality is that the total Coalition vote was only 12.4% and yet the UKIP vote as an independent party was 12.2%. The BNP, focusing mainly on immigration, achieved 6% (imagine the difference with AV).

The result shows that the Conservative Party needs to think carefully about what is going to happen in marginal seats.

Bill Cash MP: Stopping EU economic governance and repatriating EU regulations would transform the British economic landscape

Bill Cash is MP for Stone.

Last week, Ken Clarke was reported in several national newspapers stating that “we face a difficult two or three years”. Whilst this is undoubtedly the fault of the previous Government and a consequence of the financial and banking crisis, in part the difficulty also stems – as I indicated before the General Election and in my election address – from a failure to recognise the need to get on with establishing policies for growth.

On the economy, my election address referred to the then net debt as being “over £2.65 trillion including hidden costs, e.g. public sector pensions, not the £1 trillion the Government has misleadingly claimed” and I issued a statement on “Telling the Truth to the British people on actual debt”. Even now this is not being fully recognised. It also said “Only the Conservative Party offers new hope and the rebirth of enterprise and stability and jobs. Every penny of public expenditure comes from private enterprise…”, which was essential to acknowledge.

Indeed, there is going to be serious trouble from the public sector – and the trade unions are already flexing their muscles in the light of the austerity measures which have been necessarily taken. The issue of bank bonuses on which so much time is spent is important – but less important by far than the means to achieving growth.

We cannot and need not wait to improve growth. This means competitive trading. But 50% of our trade is in the crisis-ridden EU devastated by riots, protests and its own low growth – the product of failed EU economic governance.