Michael Connarty
Labour Member of UK Parliament - Linlithgow and East Falkirk Constituency
Heath Gave Primacy to EU Law in 1972
Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab):
I could not resist coming into the Chamber when I saw the hon. Gentleman's name on the board. Could he explain to me how the status quo has changed since 1972, when Parliament basically took the decision to give primacy to EU law?
Mr Jenkin: What has changed is the nature of the legal order in the EU and the UK's relationship with that legal order. If it had been explained to Parliament in 1971, when the European Communities Bill was progressing through the House, that in future a UK court would be able to strike down an Act of Parliament in the name of the European Union, there would never have been any possibility that we would have joined. The development of the European legal order, with the huge number and range of powers that have been passed over from the UK to the EU, means that I fail to see what competences the EU does not now possess that it could ever possibly need in order to become a fully fledged state. If the hon. Gentleman does not recognise that the situation is fluid, I think he is living on another planet. He had better listen to the rest of my speech.
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