William Hague, presented, yesterday, to the House of Commons, a new European Union Bill – the so called “referendum lock” on future transfers of power from the UK to the EU.

Bill Cash made the following interventions:

Mr William Cash (Stone) (Con): On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I raised earlier with the Leader of the House my Committee's concerns at the extremely short time between the presentation of the European Union Bill and its Second Reading. The Bill deals with matters of enormous constitutional importance and it would be appropriate, within the terms of reference of my Committee, to guarantee that we are given adequate time to consider it. I would be grateful, Mr Deputy Speaker, if you would be kind enough to take that point on board for the purposes of ensuring that, within the Standing Orders, my Committee has appropriate time to deal with the Bill.

William Cash (Stone, Conservative): The European Union Bill, about which I wrote to the Leader of the Houseearlier today, is a Bill of immense constitutional importance. We need to have adequate time to consider it, not least because the Minister for Europe has said that he will give one month's notice, which is wholly inadequate. We will be taking evidence, on an even-handed basis, from those on all sides of the argument and from the public. I think that the public would be extremely concerned if they knew that adequate time for such consideration was not given, particularly in view of what my right hon. Friend has just said about the Bill's consideration on the Floor of the House, which means that it will be the only opportunity for people to have a proper examination of this vital issue.

Bill Cash was quoted by BBC, The Guardian, The Express, The Daily Mail, as saying: "This bill is of historic significance and is the most important constitutional bill affecting the relationship between the UK parliament and the EU since the European Communities Act 1972." But he stressed “We need adequate time to consider it."

 Bill Cash announced that the Commons European Scrutiny Committee would be holding an inquiry into the Bill, which would be the “fullest into the issues, including the sovereignty of Parliament, that has ever taken place.”