Lord Pearson in the House of Lords

Former leader of UKIP, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, asked the following question in the House of Lords:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they continue to support European integration.

The response?

My Lords, my right honourable friend the Prime Minister has described the present situation as,

"an opportunity to begin to refashion the EU so it better serves this nation's interests".

We want to see a European Union, in his words,

"with the flexibility of a network, not the rigidity of a bloc".

The future shape of the EU might well involve more integration in some areas and between some countries, and less in others. Of course, the Government have also made it clear that they wish to see no treaty changes that transfer power or competencies from the UK to the EU in this Parliament.

A typical non-answer from the Conservative & _٨^European Unionist Party.  So he asked for some clarification:

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord. However, the British people have seen through the fiction that the European Union guarantees peace and safeguards jobs. So I have to press the Government: what is it really for? Put slightly differently, I suppose we can all agree that other international bodies such as theUnited Nations or NATO have an identifiable purpose, but can the Government tell us why we need the European Union at all, not to mention its very own disastrous euro?

You can read the euro love-in from all three of the extremist LibLabCon parties on the Hansard website.