HEATH ON BRITISH ENTRY: No referendum, but adequate debate

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 17

HEATH ON BRITISH ENTRY: No referendum, but adequate debate

(By

ALAN GRAHAM.

. N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent)

LONDON, June 18.

The House of Commons would be asked in September or October to decide, in principle, on the issue of British entry into the Common Market, the Prime Minister (Mr Heath) told a packed House yesterday afternoon.

Mr Heath said that if the vpte favoured entry, then negotiations on the final issues could be completed by December of this year,' and Britain could join the Community on January 1, 1973.

The Prime Minister’s statement was welcomed by supporters and opponents of the entry plan; but he declined with force the demands of some M.P.s for a referendum, and those of others for a free vote in the Commons.

Mr Heath said that the six steps required before Britain could join were: Resolution between Britain and the Six of the remaining main issues. Publication of a White Paper setting out the Government’s views on ' the terms negotiated, followed by a debate in which M.P.s would be asked to approve entry in principle. Resolution in Brussels of the lesser remaining issues. The signing of a treaty of accession.

Legislation in the Commons to give effect to the treaty. Formal ratification of the treaty. Mr Heath said that he hoped the first step would be completed by the end of next month. The White Paper would be published as soon as possible after that, setting out the terms, together with the Government’s opinion on those terms. Two debates Mr Heath then said that the Government appreciated the need for adequate time for discussion of the White Paper, but, he added, Britain owed it to the Six, to the three other applicant countries, and to itself, to hold the debate as soon as possible. It was therefore planned that one debate would be held before Parliament broke up late in July for the summer recess, and that a second debate would be held when the House returned a month later. It would be after that debate that the Commons would be asked to decide in principle the issue of entry. Then, Mr Heath added, the final details would be settled, the treaty of accession could be signed by the end of the year, and Britain .would formally join the E.E.C. at the end of 1972. Questioned about the size of the promised White Paper. Mr Heath said: “It will give all the information available and therefore it will be quite a substantial document.” The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Harold Wilson) said

only that he welcomed the time-table, but wished it could have been announced two weeks ago. A Conservative member, Mr Gilbert Longden, and the leader of the Liberal Party, Mr Jeremy Thorpe, both demanded a free vote, but Mr Heath told them that his party had been elected to lead the country, and they would do so.

There was no more satisfaction for a group of M.P.s who demandea a referendum, non the grounds that ler applicant countries —Denmark, Ireland and Norway would each be holding one. Mr Heath said that unlike those countries, Britain did not have a written Constitution, but it did have a history of decision by Parliamentary vote, and he did not intend to change that history. Well pleased Considering the loud demands in recent weeks for Mr Heath to make his statement, M.P.s showed by their silence yesterday that they were well pleased with the time-table announced.

In the brief discussion on Commons procedures that followed Mr Heath’s statement, th- Chief Conservative Whip (Mr William Whitelaw) told Mr Wilson that he could not say just how long the two E.E.C. debates might last. “But this is obviously a most important question, and the debates will obviously last a long time," he said. Mr Whitelaw told the

House that Britain’s chief Common Market negotiator, Mr Geoffrey Rippon, would speak on Thursday of next week about the talks in Luxemburg on Monday and Tuesday, when the vital terms for New Zealand are expected to be negotiated. Most British newspapers have praised Mr Heath for his decision to delay the vital House of Commons vote until after the summer recess. “The Times” says that there are very strong reasons for taking the vote as soon as possible, but that Mr Heath has taken a correct view of the balance of Parliamentary wishes on the subject. It adds that, in spite of the loss of time, the question of entry can now be discussed on merits and not on procedure.