§ Q4. Mr. Michael McNair-Wilsonasked the Prime Minister what recent consideration he has given to using referenda as a means of discovering the views of the general public about relevant questions of the day.
§ The Prime MinisterNone, Sir. As I have made clear on many occasions, the Government regarded the holding of a referendum on our continued membership of the European Economic Community as a wholly exceptional procedure for a unique occasion—a procedure which even its former critics now recognise to have been fully justified.
§ Mr. McNair-WilsonWill the Prime Minister consider a referendum on capital punishment? Since 1965 the House has 1929 voted on the subject no fewer than seven times. I speak as one opposed to hanging, but I should like the British people to express their view, because we must come to a conclusion on this matter.
§ The Prime MinisterI recognise the hon. Member's record in this matter. This is a most serious issue, which the House will be facing in the near future—I think it will be next week. Every hon. Member has to take up his own position on it, and I would very much deprecate any suggestion—which I am sure the hon. Member was not making—that hon. Members are not capable either of representing their constituents on the matter or of fully representing, in debates and in the Division Lobby, their own considered judgments.
§ Mr. William HamiltonSince it is clear that we are not to get legislation on devolution on to the statute book this Session, and since it took a comparatively short time to conduct a referendum on the EEC, will my right hon. Friend seriously consider whether it would be desirable to have a separate and distinct referendum in Scotland, among the Scottish electorate, on the question whether they want complete separation, as advocated by the SNP?
§ The Prime MinisterI am sure that they do not. My hon. Friend has always expressed himself vigorously and correctly on this matter. There would be great opposition in this House to a devolution referendum held purely in Scotland. Certainly such a referendum would have to cover Wales and England as well. Everyone in the United Kingdom has the right to be represented.
I repeat that when hon. Members seek election they seek the right to speak on behalf of their constituents in these matters. That is what we all try to do, in our different ways. Since I have referred to the United Kingdom I should make it clear that, exceptionally, and quite apart from the Common Market issue, successive Governments have, in my view rightly, used the referendum on constitutional issues within Northern Ireland for Northern Ireland.