Former Labour MP and Chair of the Vote Leave campaign Gisela Stuart opened up about her time in Brussels during an interview with Express.co.uk. The prominent eurosceptic was appointed as one of the UK Parliamentary Representatives to the European Convention in 2001, which was tasked with drawing up a new constitution for the EU. In this capacity, Ms Stuart also served as one of the thirteen members of the Convention’s Presidium – the steering group responsible for managing the business of the Convention.

When the draft Constitution emerged, Ms Stuart was one of the most trenchant critics of the proposal, famously stating that it had been drawn up by a “self-selected group of the European political elite” determined to deepen integration.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, Ms Stuart recalled her time in Brussels and further exposed the undemocratic nature of the EU, explaining how the bloc is betraying the principles of its first key treaty.

While working in the Convention, the former Labour MP chaired a group on the role of national parliaments, with the aim of creating a platform where they could become the guardians of the principle of subsidiarity and proportionality.

The principle of proportionality and subsidiarity is extremely important because it underlies everything the bloc does in areas where it does not have the right of exclusive competence.

She said: “I thought national parliaments should have a role in guarding one of the underpinning principles in the EU, which is the principle of subsidiarity and proportionality.

“If you go back of the original Treaty they do say that the EU should not make any decisions if it can be more effectively implemented at national level.

“I thought national parliaments would be the perfect group to be those guardians.”

The Treaty of Rome, officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) – the precursor to the EU – was signed in 1957 and entered into force on January 1, 1958.

One of the clauses of the Treaty was that Community action must comply with three principles – namely: attribution, subsidiarity, and proportionality.

Since then, there have been a series of amending treaties and, following the changes, there are now two treaties which set out the competences of the European Union: the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Article 5(3) of the Treaty on European Union states: “Under the principle of Subsidiarity, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union shall act only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level.”

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Ms Stuart noted that in order to safeguard that principle, she put forward a “red card system” at the time.

However, her idea was rejected.

She added: “The system we proposed in 2004 was not implemented and then years later David Cameron comes back and tells me in the tea room in the House of Commons: ‘My deal is really good. I have just negotiated a red card system for national parliaments’.

“And I thought ‘this sounds familiar’.”

Ms Stuart added that what was interesting is the reason why the Commission was so against it in the first place.

She explained: “They thought it was an insult to the Commission that they would ever propose something that would breach subsidiarity and proportionality.

“If you go back and try to find examples of when the proposals were rejected on these principles… They are virtually unheard of.”

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Before the last European parliamentary elections, Poland suggested that the red-card procedure – under which a certain number of national parliaments might club together to block planned EU legislation – could be based on the mechanism negotiated by Mr Cameron before the 2016 Brexit vote.

However, after Britain voted to leave, the plan was never implemented or talked about.

Brussels already currently has a so-called yellow card procedure that allows a dissenting minority of member states to object to plans that they think breach the bloc’s rule that action should only be taken at EU rather than national level if this is more efficient.

Konrad Szymanski, Poland’s Europe minister, said in May that the tool had proved to be a “paper tiger”.

Instead, he said a “stronger mechanism of control” was needed to bind national parliaments into the EU’s decision-making.

Echoing Ms Stuart’s claims, Ms Szymanski said that such measures would boost the bloc’s democratic legitimacy.

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