About: European Communities Act 1972 (Repeal) Bills

The European Communities Act 1972 (Repeal) Bills were a series of private member's bills of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make provision for the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972 and end the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union which at the time of the first bill being presented to Parliament for its first reading on 20 June 2012 by the then prominent Eurosceptic Conservative MP for Clacton Douglas Carswell was approaching his 40th anniversary of being on the statute book. On 26 October 2012 the first bill received its second reading with a half hour debate in the Commons however at the time it did not carry the wider support of the Conservative Party and failed to progress any further before the then current session of Parliament ended. The first bill is