Dear Mr Baldry, 

I am the Editor of the Candidlist, which seeks to list the opinions on European integration of Parliamentary Candidates at the next election. The lists are available on the Internet and have generated much comment in the media. 

You can access the Candidlist and the media comment surrounding it by going to www.candidlist.com - you will notice that we have had about seventy thousand visitors in the past year. 

I have been given your name as a Conservative Candidate, and so am writing to ask your answers to the following questions: 

1) If elected or re-elected to Parliament, would you oppose our joining the Eurozone even if joining were to be recommended by the Party leadership? 

2) If elected or re-elected to Parliament and required to choose between accepting the supremacy of European Union law in this country and leaving the European Union, would you vote for British withdrawal? 

I must emphasise that Candidlist does not support any political party and that its sole purpose is to enable concerned electors to make an informed choice among candidates of all the main parties. 

Before answering either of the above questions, I do strongly urge you to look at the General Introduction to Candidlist given on our web site. I also suggest that you should inspect the lists of names and some of the published correspondence. It is the practice of Candidlist to publish correspondence with candidates. Otherwise, please feel free to contact me, and I shall try to answer any question that you may have. 
 

Yours sincerely, 

Dr Sean Gabb 
Candidlist Webmaster 

Thank you for your e-mail.

So far as the two questions that you asked are concerned:

(i) the policy of the Conservative Party is that a Conservative Government at the next General Election would mean that there would be no referendum on Britain's membership of the Single Currency during the lifetime of the next Parliament.  I do not think that any responsible Member of Parliament could look hypothetically beyond a parliament and William Hague has chosen wisely not to do so.

(ii) This is a meaningless question as it is posed.  By the Treaty of Rome and by subsequent Treaties, the UK has agreed to adhere to European Union Law.  As of the day that we acceded to the  European Union in the mid-70's, if domestic UK law is in conflict with European Union law, then EU Law prevails.  That is exactly the same as with any other international treaty obligations that we have, viz the European Convention on Human Rights etc.

More generally, I am very happy to be described as  Pro European Conservative and I suspect that I would be disappointed if I were not described as a Europhile on your database!

Best wishes.

Tony Baldry

Mr Baldry's status as a Europhile is confirmed by his support for Kenneth Clarke's attempt to become Leader of the Conservative Party - see the item published on the BBC website.

Sean Gabb
Candidlist Director