Dear Dr Gabb

Some time ago I sent you an e-mail asking for my definition as a "?" on the "candid list" to be changed on the basis that I oppose the single currency and any further transfer of sovereignty from the UK to the EU.

You came back to me with two questions.  I have had a computer crisis, but have  now retrieved your e-mail and will answer them.

Question 1 is simple - yes, I would oppose UK entry into the Eurozone even if  the leadership recommended it.

Question 2, about "if required to choose between accepting the supremacy of  European law and leaving the European Union, would you vote for British  withdrawal?" I find more puzzling.  The fact is that EU law is already supreme in various areas.  I don't like it, but it is a fact.

So if the question is "given the current unsatisfactory situation, do you favour withdrawal?", the answer is no.

But if the question is "do you favour extending the powers of the EU and thus reinforcing the supremacy of EU law", the answer is no.

Indeed, I would support moves to take back some areas which we have ceded to EU control, particularly fishing.  This would require some renegotiation of our entry terms.

Your final question was, in any event, did I agree with William Hague's mantra that we should rule out the Euro for this Parliament and the next and resist further moves towards European Inegration?  The answer is a wholehearted "yes".

I hope this helps and I look forward to hearing from you.

David Cameron

Dear Mr Cameron,

I have read your e-mail and must take issue with your claim that European Union law is already supreme.  Parliament is sovereign. It passed the European Communities Act.  It has chosen to allow other bodies to exercise a wide jurisdiction under that Act.  But it can repeal the Act as any time it feels inclined.

This, at least, is the view taken by Mr Justice Hoffmann in the cases of Stoke-on-Trent City Council v B & Q plc and Norwich City Council v B & Q plc (Chancery Division), reported in The Daily Telegraph, 18th July, 1990. See also per Lord Denning MR in Macarthys Ltd v Smith: "if the time should come when our Parliament deliberately passes an Act with the intention of repudiating the Treaty [of Rome] or any provision in it or intentionally of acting inconsistently with it and says so in express terms then I should have thought that it would be the duty of our courts to follow the statute of our Parliament" ([1979] 3 All England Reports, 325).

The European Communities Act only becomes unrepealable if Parliament dissolves itself, and hands on the Act as part of the constitutional law of a less powerful successor body.  Unless that happens, the Act is legally no different from any other.  Given the political will, it could be repealed in half an hour.  What legal means could be used to frustrate the will of the Queen in Parliament?  What British soldier or police officer would lift a finger to execute the writ of some European court?

If, on the other hand, you are right, your complacent tone does you no credit whatever.  If, without any consultation of the people - if with a lubrication of deliberate falsehood - we really had been placed under the supreme jurisdiction of a foreign power, that would justify and even require immediate action.

By insisting on a view of our Constitution that is manifestly wrong, you are helping to advance the cause of European Union supremacy that you claim to oppose.  It is only because I believe that you are sincere in what you say that I do not reclassify you as a Europhile.  However, I am now publishing our correspondence so that others can see on what evidence your don't know classification is based, and so that they can decide for themselves whether your inability to answer my questions qualifies you to stand for and perhaps sit in a Parliament where our relationship with the European Union will be finally settled one way or another.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Sean Gabb
Candidlist Webmaster

Thank you for your e-mail.  I am not sure we actually disagree, though re-reading my response I think I could have made myself clearer.  Let me have another try.

1.  Of course I agree that Parliament is sovereign and could choose to repeal the European Communities Act.  I believe that it should retain the ability to do so.

2.  If, as an MP, I was asked to choose between retaining Parliament's sovereignty and giving it up, I would vote to retain it.

3.  What I was trying to say by saying that "EU law is supreme in various areas" is that the Treaties that have already been signed - like the Single European Act - have committed us to accept rules in various areas.

I am certainly not complacent.  For the last 30 years Politicians have given up far too much sovereignty and explained far too little about the true nature of European Institutions.  This issue is one of the reasons I want to stand for Parliamnet in the first place.

 I am not a lawyer and perhaps my original e-mail put it the wrong way.  But these are my views - no to the single currency, no to further transfer of power from Westminster to Brussels and yes to renegotiation of areas like Fish where the EU has been a disaster for the UK.  If that's being a Europhile then I'm a banana.  Please feel free to publish our correspondence.  I look forward to hearing from you.

David Cameron

Dear Mr Cameron,

Thank you for your e-mail of clarification.  I am not sure that you go quite far enough to qualify under the Candidlist defintion of sceptic. However, you may well qualify under other definitions; and I think it only fair to publish our correspondence in full so that selection committees and electors can form their own opinions on the basis of the evidence.

If you wish to supply me with further clarification of your views, please feel free to contact me at any time.

We thank you for having helped to make the Candidlist more accurate.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Sean Gabb
Candidlist Webmaster

Dear Mr Cameron,

It comes a little late for selection purposes - and Candidlist has done nothing to retard your progress in any event - but I have looked again at our correspondence, and have decided to reclassify you as a sceptic after all.

I could have quietly left you as a don't know or have quietly adjusted the list.  But I feel in all fairness I should do this publicly.  Candidlist is candid or it is nothing.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Sean Gabb
Candidlist Webmaster