The in-out EU voting row is just a distraction

The people who voted in the general election to ask for a referendum on the EU are the right people to vote in that referendum. It does not make sense to change the franchise from the normal one in general elections.

This is an important referendum on whether we stay in the European Union or find a better way from outside the treaties to trade with the member states, be friends with them and negotiate with them as most of the rest of the world does successfully. It is not a sideshow to a wider discussion about changing our normal voter list.

The Conservative Government has a narrow Parliamentary majority and won with 37 per cent of the vote. Its policy of offering a referendum on the EU was far more popular than the party. This has been confirmed by Labour’s acting leader, Harriet Harman, who says she found on the doorsteps in the election that people do want an EU referendum. Labour has wisely changed its policy to support one. With this backing it should pass Parliament relatively easily and give people what they asked for.

Our Conservative manifesto contained no proposals to allow EU migrants or 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in general elections or in the referendum. Expats who have been abroad more than 15 years have a better claim but we don’t want to make special cases for the referendum. The Government needs to use its political capital on matters that are clearly in the national interest: to further the recovery, create jobs, improve prosperity, or settle the UK constitution. We have no mandate for such changes, which would be contentious and unlikely to command large majority support.

During the election, I received little lobbying to allow 16-year-olds to vote and no lobbying to allow European Union migrants to vote here in national elections. There is no evidence that these things are wanted by many.

The referendum concerns whether the UK should become again a self-governing democracy, or whether it should submit to more and more rules, laws and controls from the EU. It would be contentious to let recently arrived EU migrants a vote on this matter, when one of the crucial topical concerns is how many EU migrants should come here and on what terms.

^{An awkward high five between David Cameron and Jean-Claude Juncker (Photo: Lieven Creemers)}

At the centre of this debate is the way the UK acts as a job creator of last resort for the EU. Much of euroland is mired in recession, slow growth and mass unemployment. I often think Euro stands for European Unemployment and Recession Organisation, as it generates both. The UK is a large contributor to the tax revenues of the EU and a large import market for continental exporters. No wonder many on the continent wish to keep us in, and value our contribution.

The UK does have to ask itself is it right that we pay so much into the EU? Is it right that we offer so many jobs to people whose own countries have wrong policies that produce high unemployment?

There are some multinational business executives who want to move immediately to fighting the referendum to keep the UK in. They weaken the Prime Minister badly by saying this. They send a signal that they and others like them will vote to stay in the EU whatever deal the EU offers the UK. How can you negotiate for a better outcome if too many want to tell the other side we will accept anything or nothing?

Other parts of the pro-EU movement now want to sidetrack the debate about the negotiations and terms of membership into a debate about who should vote in the referendum.

This also looks like a way of undermining the process that is so crucial to the UK’s future.

^{Economic refugees flock to Britain from across Europe (Photo: Reuters)}

The truth about the UK’s membership is it was sold then and now as necessary to our trade with the EU. We all want free trade with the other member states. The good news is our trade is not in danger whatever the outcome of the vote. Germany has made clear it wants to carry on selling us cars and other manufactured goods, and does not want new tariffs or barriers in its way. The UK has no intention of erecting any such obstacles, and is happy to find a convenient way of carrying on with all their and our trade intact, just as the companies that said they would leave if we did not join the euro are still here and investing in the UK.

Even more important than trade is the question of who governs. This referendum will be about whether UK voters in a general election can demand a change of policy, and UK politicians can then make it happen. We do not want to become like Greece, where the people vote for a major change but are told change is impossible under euro and EU rules.

The UK has just voted for change to its borders and welfare system. Politicians have to deliver that change. That’s why the voters in the general election who demanded new policies on borders and benefits should also decide whether the EU makes sense or is a barrier to our own democratic decision-making.