Referendum On The Adoption Of A Single Currency

EDM number 1196 in 1993-94, proposed by Tony Benn on 10/05/1994.

That this House, convinced that, if democracy is to survive, it must allow the electors to choose their government, and that that government must then have the power to carry through the economic and political programme upon which it was elected, noting that the adoption of a single currency and the establishment of a central bank in the European Union, would transfer key economic powers from the people, Parliament and government of the United Kingdom to persons who have not been elected and cannot be removed through the ballot box, recognizing that amongst the powers that would be thus transferred would be those which it would be essential for a government to have at its disposal if it wished to achieve full employment and build up industry and the public services, believing that such a transfer of powers would gravely undermine the power of the franchise for the people of this country who won their rights over many centuries, and fearing that, were the franchise to be eroded in this way, serious and possibly irreparable damage might be done to the consent upon which society depends for its cohesion, therefore demands that legislation be introduced to allow the British people to decide, for themselves, in a national referendum, whether this country should accept a single currency or not and that the result of such a national referendum should be binding upon Parliament.

This motion has been signed by a total of 22 MPs.