Business for New Europe Blog

The Common’s European Scrutiny Committee – Process, Politics and Bill Cash

Phillip Souta

The European Scrutiny Committee (ESC) is one of the most important committees in the House of Commons.  It has more staff and MPs than any other departmental select committee.  It scrutinises some 1,000 European Union “documents” – draft regulations, directives, Council decisions, budgetary documents – every year.  It is highly visible on the European stage as it liaises with other member state European Scrutiny Committess under COSAC - the Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the EU.

It’s looking increasingly likely that the chair of the committee is going to be one of its most long-standing members – Bill Cash, Conservative MP for Stone.  He was nominated unopposed by the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs, and it’s the Conservatives’ turn to chair it.  Barring a last minute realisation on the part of the Tory party that this would be a very bad idea indeed, he will likely be ensconced in that position next Wednesday 21 July for the next five years.

One can get a feel for what this would mean from the various articles (in the Telegraph,Express, CityAM and the Evening Standard) where he is quoted – as apparent currently sitting chair of the ESC, despite the fact that until yesterday, the members of the committee hadn’t even been named by Parliament (Item 22 on Future Business of the Common’s order paper for next week).

Some MPs might consider it presumptuous for one of their number to allow himself to be quoted as the chair of a committee that they hadn’t elected him too, let alone named as a member.

The Commons Selection Committee last night named the following MPs as members of the ESC - William Cash, James Clappison, Michael Connarty, Jim Dobbin, Julie Elliott, Nia Griffith, Chris Heaton-Harris, Kelvin Hopkins, Chris Kelly, Tony Lloyd, Penny Mordaunt, Stephen Phillips, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Henry Smith, Ian Swales and Heather Wheeler.  That motion will be agreed on Monday unless there are objections.

It is almost inevitable that Bill Cash will use the committee to promote his passionately held but perverse views comparing various elements of EU law-making to the “invasions of another kind that threatened to undermine our sovereignty and our nationhood in the dark days of the 1930s and 1940s.” (Hansard, 13 Jan 2010, Column 811).

During a debate in the Commons on Parliamentary Sovereignty on 15 June, he (Proudly?) stated that in 1986, when he tabled a sovereignty amendment to the Single European Act, the only other member of Parliament “who clearly understood why it was so important” was Enoch Powell (Hansard, 15 June 2010, Column 72WH).

Roland Rudd, BNE’s chair, says in a letter in today’s Telegraph describes how when asked once by Margaret Thatcher what he felt about Europe, he said that he “thought that her task was more difficult than Churchill’s”, because “he was faced with bombs and aircraft. You [Margaret Thatcher] are faced with pieces of paper.” (ibid.)  European laws, Nazi Germany.  Not the most credible comparison that springs to mind.

Hugh Muir in today’s Guardian also picks up growing unease in the Conservative ranks that this may have been a very bad idea indeed, and that there might be merit in appointing someone who will not seek to use the ESC to promote their own uniquely minority views.

Update – 16 July, 4.46pm

It is still unclear who will be chair of the ESC.  The membership of the proposed committee does not reflect the make-up of the House.  Labour MPs will no doubt feel that they are being short changed (even if this is not by design and perhaps merely a consequence of who was available to sit on the committee).  There may very well be a revolt over the chairmanship by the members of the committee due to this.  We shall have to wait until next Wednesday to find out.  In the meantime, see below for a breakdown of the proposed members.

European Scrutiny Committee of the House of Commons (proposed – motion before House of Commons on 19 July)

Reflecting total makeup of the House

Committee reflecting the three main parties

Update – 28 July

The new members of the ESC have been appointed – and Labour gets one more at the expense of the Conservative Party.  The committee will elect its chair in September – that is still likely to be Bill Cash.

Current makeup