James Wharton MP: Conservatives must forge international alliances in the Balkans, or others will

James Wharton is the Member of Parliament for Stockton South.  Follow James on Twitter.

I was fortunate to get the opportunity to spend a few days in Kosovo and Albania this week.  This was a private trip (I know it is not what many people would consider a holiday but there we go!) and I mixed meeting friends with more than a dash of politics.

I have spent the vast majority of the summer recess in my constituency, working on a whole range of local issues, getting a break from talking about the EU, and delivering my most recent constituency newsletter.  But for a few days away I would recommend a Kosovo/Albania visit to anyone.  Sadly, I did not have time to visit Albania's impressive beaches- they certainly looked pretty good from the windows through which I viewed them- but I did get a feel for the immense potential of both countries.

James Wharton MP: How Labour and the LibDems filibustered my EU referendum bill last night

James Wharton is the Member of Parliament for Stockton South.  Follow James on Twitter.

Yesterday was the first day of the Committee stage of my EU Referendum Bill.  Having passed its second reading not long ago, I was keen to get it into committee and make progress.  The sooner it is back before the Commons for Report and can hopefully get through to the Lords the better.  Sadly, however, some of the Labour members of the committee, and its only Lib Dem (Martin Horwood) set out to delay progress as much as they could.

The committee met at 2pm and spent somewhere in the region of four and a half hours discussing when it should meet again.  My original suggestion that we should meet on Tuesdays from 2pm and Wednesdays all day was, ultimately, accepted.  Things then turned from bad to worse as Labour and the Lib Dem member proceeded to talk at length but yet make little progress.  In a Bill Committee it is very difficult to prevent filibustering and we saw some impressive examples of it deployed as the evening wore on.

Conservative MPs dipped in and out of the public gallery to show their support, including at one stage the Prime Minister, who has never wavered in his backing for this Bill.

There are occasional and short breaks during such proceedings, and these are a chance not just for MPs to refuel and refresh but also for discussions and deals as to how progress might be made.  It can become something of a game of attrition.  Important issues are raised, of course, but ultimately one side eventually persuades the other, runs out of fresh argument or gives up its position.

Last night my Conservative colleagues, Gavin Williamson, Simon Hart, Pauline Latham, Aidan Burley and Tobias Ellwood, joined by Ministers David Liddington and Chloe Smith, stood firm admirably.  By presenting a united front, determined to sit for as late into the evening as it might take, we were able to make some progress on the substantive matters of the Bill.

We geared up to go all evening, making plans to take shifts for short breaks and showers.  Gavin took on the role of unofficial whip like a duck to water, drawing up a rota and ensuring the committee would also be well attended at all times.  He organised colleagues as though he had been born for the role, and a place in the whips office must beckon soon.

In the end, a deal was struck.  We were able to address the first two groups of amendments, being the substantive part of the changes tabled so far.  We finished not long before 1am, a welcome surprise for MPs who had been prepared for an all night effort and had already rearranged diaries for the next day.  Over 20 amendments were discussed at length and voted down.

The EU Referendum Bill still has some way to go before it can come back to the Commons.  There will be more committee sittings when Parliament returns in September and then the battle on the floor of the house will recommence.  The crucial first step of its first day at committee has now been passed, and our MPs have demonstrated beyond all doubt their commitment to supporting it and doing all we can to ensure it has the best possible chance of passing into law.

James Wharton MP: Today we learn who really believes the people deserve a say on the EU

James Wharton is the Member of Parliament for Stockton South.  Follow James on Twitter.

Today MPs will debate my Private Members' Bill to put into law a referendum on the EU with a simple question - in or out, with a legal deadline for it to happen before the end of 2017.

It has been nearly 40 years since the British people last had their say on Europe - and most of us have never had a say on Europe at all. I wasn't even born at the last referendum. In that time, so much has changed - the countries involved and the powers the EU has, as well as the benefits and costs of membership. People feel that the EU has been heading in a direction they never signed up to. This question about our membership is already there and ignoring it will not make it go away. These concerns deserve to be heard and acted upon.

If my Bill is passed it would be legally impossible for a future government to ignore it and, when you think about it, politically virtually impossible to reverse it too. The Bill says that the government - any future government - must by the end of 2016 have set a date for a referendum by the end of 2017. So any government that dared to try to ignore this law and deny the people a vote could be taken to court by anyone. Of course, if after the next election there's a majority in Parliament against a referendum - and what a tragedy that would be - a different Government could try to pass a new law to scrap the referendum, but that is a fundamental rule of our ancient constitution. So, of course, if you want to be sure of having your say on Britain's place in Europe, then vote Conservative at the next election. But even so it would take a Prime Minister and a Government of astonishing arrogance to vote down a referendum that was already the law of the land.

James Wharton MP: Conservatives should reject lazy left-wing generalisations about "the North East" being affected as one by government policies

James Wharton is the Member of Parliament for Stockton South.

Surely the most frustrating thing about being a Conservative in the North East is the fashionable belief that our values “do not sell” in the region. All too often we buy into the rhetoric of our opponents and allow them to set the terms of debate. Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is a powerful example; I have lost count how many times I have been told that people in the North East do not like her. Labour MPs throw around “back to the 80s” as a criticism of government policies they oppose and all too often we let them get away with it. Yet in 1987 Mrs Thatcher won five seats in the North East, when in 2010, after years of decontamination and social action, David Cameron won only two: Hexham and Stockton South. We need to think long and hard about why this is the case.

I could use this platform to argue for more cash with which to buy votes, whether through new roads or enterprise zones or whatever else takes my fancy. Of course I do often make the case for spending in my region, but not as a way of buying popularity. I make the case when I believe it is the right thing to do. We cannot buy our way out of this particular political challenge. For proof of this we need look no further back than the excellent Teesside and Tyne and Wear Development Corporations, which regenerated huge areas in the late 1980s and 1990s. In Stockton South alone the Teesside Development Corporation created the Tees barrage, Teesside Retail Park, Teesdale Business Park and Preston Farm Industrial Estate. It transformed acres of wasteland into vibrant commercial centres and in 1997 the sitting Conservative MP Tim Devlin, who had delivered so much for the communities he represented, was swept from office with a swing of over 16%.

James Wharton MP: On pensions, we mustn't allow our opponents to suggest promises are being broken where they are not

James Wharton has been MP for Stockton South since 2010.

The furore surrounding the Government’s plan to speed up the increase in State Pension Age to 66 reached a new height this week, with the Pensions Bill’s Second Reading in the House of Commons.  I do not intend to argue the merits or otherwise of the policy in this article, for by now we are all well versed in the dire state of the nation’s finances, and becoming increasingly aware of the longer-term but equally inescapable logic of demographic change.

What the controversy does illustrate, however, is a worrying tendency amongst Government MPs and Ministers to accept all opposition attacks and accusations as the necessary accompaniment of tough decisions in Government.  We cannot cave in to every campaign against our policies, of course, but nor should we simply brazen it out and allow repeated assertions of bad faith to become received wisdom by virtue merely of their repetition, not basis in fact.

There is, of course, a campaign against the provisions of the Pensions Bill, one driven particularly passionately by those who are worst affected.  Some of these campaigners are now arguing the Government’s plans breach the Conservative manifesto and, for that matter, the Coalition Agreement.  EDM 1402 highlights this - 23 Lib Dem MPs and a few Conservatives have now signed the unhelpful motion, which states:

“That this House welcomes the equalisation of the state pension age for men and women, but notes with concern the Government's proposals to accelerate the timetable for doing so; recognises that 300,000 women born between December 1953 and October 1954 will have to work an additional 18 months or more of which 33,000 will have to work an extra two years; further recognises that these women have less than the 15 years of preparation time recommended by the Turner Commission before the changes take place; and calls on the Government to take these issues into account and revise the timetable in order to maintain the commitment given in the Coalition Agreement.”