1986 to 2024 – Sovereignty Regained

The vital battle since we joined the European Community in 1972 to regain Sovereignty for the United Kingdom Parliament and our self-government and democracy and to make our own laws by our own MPs across the whole of government began in 1986 with my sovereignty amendment. This amendment stated on the House of Commons Order Paper on 16th June 1986:

“Nothing in this Act or in any enactment or instrument construed or incorporated with this Act (whether coming into force before or after this Act, or any such Act or instrument) shall be deemed to have derogated at any time, or shall derogate, from the sovereignty of the Parliament of the United Kingdom notwithstanding any declaration, treaty or other instrument made in respect of European union”.

I drafted this amendment myself, a parliamentary draftsman for many years before entering Parliament, and the meaning of these words was unmistakable. I used the word ‘notwithstanding’ because it has a very longstanding meaning in Acts of Parliament since at least 1660, at the time when the Cromwellian legislation was legally forgotten and was being repealed as part of the Restoration of the Crown. The word appears many times in the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion 1660. My amendment meant, as a matter of law, that
we would need to leave the European Community.

The establishment was profoundly worried about this, and although it appeared on the Order Paper, I was refused the opportunity even to debate it by the Deputy Speaker. I raised points of order on this, but I was prevented from debating it, even despite my having a meeting with the Speaker himself about it who expressed sympathy with my concerns.

In these debates I said, “We must bear in mind the consequences of giving legal effect to the proposals in the Single Act. The European Court of Justice will be involved. We must be sure that we know what we are doing. Who will control it all? The Government? Parliament? The Commission?” I said that if we did not remain alert to the dangers inherent in the Community’s mechanisms, “we shall reap the whirlwind.” That is the level at which my amendment was pitched.

I had a serious argument with clerks in the House and the Speaker himself, with whom I had a meeting. He said to me there was nothing he could do to enable a debate on this amendment to take place. Undeterred, but realising that there was nothing more I could do at that stage, I decided that patience and determination was the best course of action and that I would return to this — which I did repeatedly over the next 36 years, including many

Sovereignty and Referendum Bills and other amendments in my name. Gradually more and more backbenchers were persuaded, and I was elected as the chairman of the Conservative Backbench European Affairs Committee in 1989 and again in 1990, when I was re-elected after Margaret Thatcher was forced to resign. I then led the Maastricht rebellion with a magnificent team of Conservative colleagues, many of whom are now on the Advisory Board of the newly named Foundation against John Major and created the Maastricht Referendum Campaign in 1992 with a massive national petition and calling on MPs to pass a Sovereign Act of Parliament for a Referendum to allow the voters to decide themselves in a Referendum how they were to be governed. This would bypass the collusion between the Front Benches who wanted further European Government and integration with the Maastricht treaty. This Maastricht Referendum Campaign was essential not least because in 1972 we had entered the European Community without a Referendum asking the UK voters whether they wanted to stay in, the European Community or not.

I gravely warned the government on 28th September 2019 against any extension of the dangerous article 4 of the withdrawal agreement negotiated by Teresa May and having called on her to resign during the Spartan rebellion. At last on 17th October 2019 the Government under Boris Johnson as Prime Minister accepted my sovereignty proposals. This became Section 38 “Sovereignty of Parliament’ in the Withdrawal Agreement Act 2020, which was unopposed in the House of Commons and House of Lords.

I had set out the case in 1986, which, if it were to be accepted, would have meant we would have to leave Europe, and I resolved to continue this battle, navigating step by step, with my amendments, in the House and briefings from the European Foundation and pamphlets, through all the treaties from Maastricht of course, through to ‘to Nice, Amsterdam, and the European Constitution, and Lisbon. This continued until the Withdrawal Agreement Act 2020, when we did leave, with the same kind of ‘notwithstanding’ formula as in 1986.

In the real world of politics and Parliament, it is necessary to bide one’s time but never give up — nor to push matters beyond the bounds of current reality. One must appreciate present constraints while maintaining a continued determination to achieve the ultimate objective, but without pushing the boundaries beyond current possibility.

In 1988, the Merchant Shipping Act was put forward by the government to deal with Spanish fishing and other issues. I had warned the Attorney General that without the use of the words ‘notwithstanding’ the European Communities Act 1972’, the Bill was endangered — but to no avail at the time. The whole Act was then voided in a seminal judgment by the Law Lords in the Factortame case on the basis that the 1988 Act was inconsistent with the European Communities Act 1972.

On 31st Jan 2020, we left the European Union in a historic constitutional revolution, restoring sovereignty, self-government and democracy to the voters, implementing and endorsing the successful outcome of the June 2016 Referendum, including the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972.

Now the Labour government is reversing this with Keir Starmer’s mendacious so-called 'Reset' - the step change to Re-join.

To deal with this betrayal of the voters of this country, The United Kingdom Sovereignty Foundation has the new name of what was “The European Foundation” but builds on, and incorporates the 35-year heritage of the European Foundation, (whose logo remains for Freedom and Democracy), which I founded in 1991/2 The mission of The United Kingdom Sovereignty Foundation is to defeat the Labour government's Reset, which is to Re-join, and to promote the following objects of the Foundation, namely:

“To promote, consolidate, and preserve the sovereignty, self-government, and democracy, of the United Kingdom, and its Parliament, and the continuing arrangements for the completion of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union"

In 1991, at the same time as I published my book, "Against a Federal Europe: The Battle for Britain" (Duckworth) I had founded the European Foundation to oppose the then government’s Maastricht Treaty, which absorbed the United Kingdom into the European Union and European government. The then European Foundation continued to oppose successive EU treaties including Nice, Amsterdam, the proposed EU Constitution, and the Lisbon Treaty, with my amendments and full briefings for MPs and the House of Lords.

The website of the newly named United Kingdom Sovereignty Foundation now includes the unique archives from the European Foundation, setting out its successful heritage, including its engagement with Parliament and the European Scrutiny Committee, of which I was a member from 1984 to 2024, and which I chaired from 2010. These archives also include a succession of pamphlets and editions of the European Journal. There are also articles in the Times and Telegraph. It also includes, Referendum Bills, amendments and debates, and other Bills, promoting Sovereignty for the UK Parliament and the country. I also set up the European Reform Group Seminars in the House of Commons which was cross party in an attempt to have a constructive discussion about democracy, sovereignty and self government and we reported on this in 2005.

Margaret Thatcher strongly supported the Foundation, made significant donations, and became its Patron. She also became Patron of my parallel Maastricht Referendum Campaign in 1992-93, which gained massive support throughout the United Kingdom for a National Referendum and for the restoration of Parliamentary Sovereignty as can be seen from the website.

These vital campaigns were conducted outside and inside Parliament, in which I sat as Member of Parliament for Stafford and then Stone from 1984-2024 with that magnificent team of Conservative colleagues on the back benches.