Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if his Department will make representations to the EU on ensuring that local authorities are not unduly influenced to publish material supporting a vote to remain a member of the EU.

Mr David Lidington

Under the terms of the draft Referendum Bill, local authorities will be subject to the same statutory restrictions on what they can publish in the final 28 days of the campaign as other public bodies. Both ministers and officials have discussed the UK referendum with the European Commission. The European Commission has informed us that they view the referendum as a matter for the British people, and do not intend to take part in the campaign.