Daily Mail

January 26, 2014

A bill to enshrine a European referendum in law was described as a ‘dead parrot’ last night after Labour and the Lib Dems united to block it.

Nearly 250 peers voted to halt the Bill – backed by David Cameron – which would guarantee a nationwide in-out vote on EU membership in 2017.

Peers passed two amendments to the legislation, effectively guaranteeing that it will run out of time in this Parliamentary session.

Arch Eurosceptic MP Bill Cash echoed a Monty Python sketch in pronouncing its demise.

He said: ‘As I understand it from the House of Lords, the European Union Referendum Bill is now, in effect, a dead parrot.’

Mr Cameron has vowed to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with Brussels before holding a referendum in 2017.

But he could not introduce government legislation because of Lib Dem opposition.

Instead, No10 backed a Private Member’s Bill introduced by Tory MP James Wharton, which was passed in the Commons after Labour and the Lib Dems abstained.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has refused to make his position on the Bill clear but Labour and Lib Dem peers tabled 73 amendments to the Bill, many of them frivolous, to kill it off.

Peers voted by 245 votes to 158 to amend the wording of the question that would be put to voters in the referendum.

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