Beckett rapped for ‘failure of accountability’
The foreign secretary has been criticised for failing to give evidence to the foreign affairs committee (FAC) about Britain’s relations with the EU.
Ms Beckett had offered to appear a few days before the summit but committee chairman Mike Gapes said that was too late to keep the committee up-to-date.
“By then senior officials in the Foreign Office and Number 10 will have been involved in months of discussions with their counterparts in other European countries,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“There are controversial issues here – in the past there has been a commitment to a referendum, if we are now moving away from a referendum and we are having parliamentary decisions on these processes, then parliament itself has to be fully engaged in the discussion and the development of the policy.”
Mr Gapes has written a letter to Ms Beckett on behalf of the committee, expressing “deep concern” about her failure to present evidence to the MPs.
He wrote: “The committee regards the refusal of the [Foreign Office] to provide a minister to give oral evidence during this crucial phase of the discussions on the future of Europe as a failure of accountability to parliament.
“We have consistently requested an early date for this evidence, so that parliament could be better informed of the government’s approach to the discussions taking place and so that ministers could hear the views of the committee.”
Mrs Beckett, who attended a G8 summit of foreign ministers yesterday, claims she would be able to offer the committee better evidence once she had drawn up policy options.
A spokesman for the Ms Beckett said: “The foreign secretary and her team of ministers take very seriously their accountability to parliament and the FAC.
“Our position was that any evidence session would be most useful once the German presidency had set out their timetable for discussions leading up to the European Council and once the government had drawn up a set of policy options in response which would provide the basis for a discussion at an evidence session.
“Ministers continue to keep parliament informed both through written questions and through monthly foreign office oral questions,” he said.
Ms Beckett was not the only minister to raise the ire of the FAC. Geoff Hoon, minister for Europe, also refused to attend until June, to whom Mr Gapes wrote: “It is the strong view of the committee that an evidence session in June is too late”.
