THE week at Westminster has been dominated by the motion for a referendum on Europe.

There is clearly a strong case for a referendum on our relationship with Europe, however the motion before us on Monday was flawed. It effectively conflated two separate questions – in or out or renegotiation.

A referendum requires a simple yes or no option. It was simply the wrong question at the wrong time.

I was a signatory to an alternative motion which proposed a referendum should take place after the Government has set out which powers it seeks to get back. That way we could have a meaningful debate about whether renegotiation will address all the concerns that people have about our relationship with Europe. For my part I have long had the view that too much power has been ceded to Europe and I do want to see a repatriation of powers. To that end, I and some Conservative colleagues are sponsoring some work to put together our wishlist of powers to be repatriated. We will then ask the Government to take the argument to Europe.

As the Speaker did not select our amendment for debate, I was left only with the motion before the House, which I could not support.

I do not believe that now is the time to be having a debate of this nature.

We need to maintain our focus on building economic recovery and repairing the nation’s finances. A referendum campaign now would be a diversion from that work. We are witnessing profound economic turbulence in Europe and, make no mistake, whatever happens to the euro will impact on our economy here as Europe accounts for half of all our trade. We should take no satisfaction from the difficulties that the euro is facing – we should be using our voice to ensure that the eurozone countries take the necessary steps to get their housse in order. We won’t be able to do that if we are fighting a referendum which might lead to our withdrawal from Europe. We will be simply ignored.