The Tories have some very weird friends in Europe

Despite trying to distance himself from their actions, David Cameron bears ultimate responsibility for the Conservative Party’s strange and worrying new supporters in the European parliament following this year’s European elections.

Labour has consistently raised concerns about the political parties which David Cameron’s MEPs have chosen as allies. From parties whose activists attend ceremonies to commemorate a Latvian unit of Waffen SS troops, to politicians accused of inciting racial tensions, and those with anti-immigrant views, the Tories’ political bedfellows in the ECR grouping in the European Parliament are strange indeed.

Officially called the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the ECR only came about because David Cameron decided to leave the centre-right group in the European parliament in order to shore up his supposed Eurosceptic credentials during the Tory leadership campaign in 2005.

This decision has continued to haunt him ever since. What was a short-term tactical decision has turned out to be a strategic error of immense importance. Because of this decision, Cameron has managed to alienate many of his natural allies in the EU.

This auto-isolationism plays out in all EU institutions. For example, it is important to be able to form a viable political group in the European parliament. This means that groups must have at least 25 MEPs from at least 7 member states. The Tories now have formal allies in fourteen other member states yet nearly all are single MEPs from parties on the fringe of European politics. The chief whip of Ireland’s biggest party Fianna Fail has called the ECR group “a crowd of head bangers”.

The Tories’ new allies, the Danish People’s Party and the Finns Party, have some high-level activists who have made racist statements. Other parties in the ECR are slightly more subtle, arguing against multiculturalism per se, and there is the Tories main partners in the ECR group; the Polish Law & Justice Party. Its leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, is on record as saying “the affirmation of homosexuality will lead to the downfall of civilization. We can’t agree to it”.

These are crucial issues, because David Cameron has allowed Britain’s reputation in Europe to be put at risk as a result of the poor choices made by his MEPs.

Just when our Prime Minister needs to build strong alliances in Europe to help secure crucial victories for Britain, the only allies his MEPs can now turn to are those on the outside of the major groupings, and whose views are rejected by many mainstream political leaders across Europe.

Gareth Thomas MP is the Shadow Europe Minister