John Baron MP chases response to his Prime Minister’s letter over EU Referendum

MP still awaiting reply to letter co-signed by 100 MPs

Yesterday in Parliament, during a Westminster Hall debate on the relationship between the UK and the European Union, John Baron MP again raised the fact that the Prime Minister still has not replied to a letter John and 100 of his Parliamentary colleagues sent him on 27^th June. John had a meeting with the Prime Minister on 9^th July, during which they agreed to disagree, and David Cameron promised that he would reply.

The letter called upon the Prime Minister to place on the Statute Book a commitment to hold a referendum within the next Parliament on the nature of our relationship with the EU. John was not the only MP to raise this issue during the debate. John has chased by tabling Parliamentary Questions to the PM, and mused in an article on the ConservativeHome website about the reasons for delay.

In the debate, John said,

“Is it not strange a letter sent to the Prime Minister at the end of June and signed by 100 of his Parliamentary colleagues has not even been answered?”

Replying for the Government, the Under-Secretary of State, Mark Simmonds MP, said that the Prime Minister would reply shortly.

Afterwards, John said,

“There could be several reasons why the PM is delaying his response. Perhaps he is changing his mind, now accepts the logic of his position, and wants to make a big announcement at Party Conference. We live in hope.”

• John recently wrote an article musing on why the Prime Minister’s is taking his time to reply. It is online at: http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2012/09/john-baron-mp-why-is-the-prime-minister-taking-so-long-to-answer-our-european-referendum-letter.html.