LISBON TREATY LITIGATION

LISBON TREATY LITIGATION

You may be interested to know that on 18 September 2008 I was one of the two speakers at the second Annual James Goldsmith Memorial Lecture. Half of my speech was on Europe and I took a very robust line about what Tory supporters should do. speech

Why I sued the Prime Minister
by Stuart Wheeler

In January 2008 I brought an action against the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, in which I sought a judicial review of their refusal to hold a referendum on whether the Lisbon Treaty should be ratified. I obtained a judicial review. The hearing was on 9 and 10 June. Judgment was reserved.

On 25 June judgment was given. We lost. I applied to the Court of Appeal for leave to appeal and there was a hearing on Friday 18 July of that application. The government, however, performed the final act of ratification at noon on Wednesday 16 July, knowing I was about to apply to the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal. It turned out, contrary to what I had thought until just before the hearing, that ratification could probably be undone until all 27 members of the EU have ratified. I therefore proceeded with the hearing on 18 July, ordered by Lord Justice Dyson, of my application for leave to appeal.

I am sorry to say that I lost and that Lord Justice Dyson did not appear to have taken on board that the government had, in effect, guaranteed to me that they would not ratify the treaty before the hearing, and had breached this undertaking.

Although I was the person who brought the action, it was, in effect, on behalf of all those of us – well over half the population – who wanted our say in a referendum. There are, I believe, two reasons why there should have been a referendum:

The Labour Party, as well as the other two main parties, made an unambiguous promise that they would call one. They should have kept that promise.

The treaty is immensely important and so, irrespective of whether you thought it should be ratified or not, you should have been allowed a vote on it.

I am overwhelmingly grateful to the very large number of people who wrote to me with messages of support and, in many cases, sent money to help with the costs. I am, of course, very disappointed not to have succeeded for you and all of us. I do, however, take comfort from the Irish vote and I hope that they will resist the threats and bribes by which the EU will try to get them to change their minds.

Stuart Wheeler
21 July 2008

I am sorry to say that it now seems fairly likely that the Irish will vote again this autumn, having been given some assurances. Whether these assurances will persuade them to change their vote remains to be seen. Even if they do vote Yes on the basis of some assurances there will be a serious question whether the assurances amount to a change in the treaty, in which case all 27 members of the EU would have to ratify the changed treaty or otherwise it would not become law.

Stuart Wheeler
9 January 2009