Sir Roger Gale
Member of Parliament for Herne Bay and Sandwich (including West Thanet)
 

North Thanet's MP, Roger Gale, has today (Monday) launched a parliamentary petition calling for a referendum to be held on the EU Constitutional Treaty.

The launch of the petition follows the circulation of thousands of cards promoting the right of the public to have the chance to vote in the referendum promised by Prime Minister Blair and Chancellor Brown.

Speaking in Thanet the MP said:

The response to the cards has been dramatic: literally hundreds of people have taken the trouble to stamp them - usually first class - and return them to me and it is clear that the demand for the electorate to have a say in this vital issue is very considerable indeed.

I have accordingly issued parliamentary petition forms in language approved by the Clerks department for presentation to the House of Commons and I expect thousands of constituents to sign up to this.  I am additionally circulating the details to parliamentary colleagues in the hope that they will take up this campaign also.

There are, of course, a number of media petitions running but so far as I am aware this is the first and only one drafted for presentation to parliament.

I still believe that it may be possible, by sheer force of numbers, to compel Brown to hold the promised referendum."

The petition reads:

"To the House of Commons
The petition of residents of Kent
Declares that the proposed draft European Reform treaty is similar in all but insignificant detail to the withdrawn European Constitution; notes that this fact has been confirmed in the 35th report of Session 2006-2007 of the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee and notes that the Committee has found that the timetable for the adoption of the Reform Treaty now proposed "having regard to the sitting terms of national parliaments could not have been better designed to marginalise their role".
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons call upon the Government of the United Kingdom to put the proposals, in coherent form, for consideration by the British Electorate in a binding referendum before ratifying any further proposed Reform treaty or constitution by another name."

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