Another week in Strasbourg and it’s the same old Tories acting up yet again

By Glenis Willmott

I’m just leaving the office in Strasbourg and wanted to drop a quick note to remind you of how far-fetched David Cameron’s claims to have changed the Tory party are.

Yesterday William Hague met with the chairman of the European People’s Party (EPP) to confirm that Tory MEPs will leave the biggest political group in the European Parliament after the June 4 European elections and will try to set up a little group on their own.

Once again the Tories have put dogma before national interest. Just when the global economic crisis has shown the need for effective cooperation with our partners, David Cameron is showing himself to be an isolationist. He is clearly pandering to the Eurosceptic fringe of his Party.

The sorry outcome of his decision means that Tory MEPs and the wider Conservative Party will have no influence and no say in the European Parliament. This cannot be good for the people of Britain, whose votes they will be courting on June 4th.

Tories in the next European Parliament will sit in splendid isolation with a rag bag of nobodies that no one wants to listen to. David Cameron will have to explain himself, how does he think this will be of help to the people of Britain in a time of crisis?

So it is now clear that the Tories are divided on Europe and isolated in it!

But what else did they do this week? Most of the Tory MEPs voted against an amendment calling for the closure of Tax havens. Most of them couldn’t even bring themselves to vote for a resolution on Employment guidelines, part of our major European Economic recovery package. Two Tories even voted against the entire Economic Recovery Plan, calling for the EU to let the recession run its course!

So here we are, Tories protecting the super rich, and divided and isolated in Europe.