Tory MEP claims guns were banned on “false premise”

Daniel Hannan, the Eurosceptic Tory MEP, may not be the most popular person in the Conservative Party HQ. As well as taking a harder anti-EU line than the current leadership, he has on a number of occasions called for some sort of electoral pact between the Tories and UKIP (most recently after this year’s European elections).

However, it seems that it’s not simply on EU matters that Hannan finds common cause with Nigel Farage’s party. Having long been considered on the more libertarian wing of the Conservatives, Hannan today tweeted support for UKIP’s stance on gun laws.

In January, Farage made the news for saying that handguns should be legalised and licensed. The current laws, which were tightened up with the 1997 Firearms Act, were “ludicrous” and had come from a “kneejerk” reaction. The 1997 Firearms Act, which effectively made the private ownership of a handgun illegal, was drawn up and passed after 17 people, including 16 children aged 5 and 6, were shot and killed at a shooting in Dunblane in 1996. The act was supported by all three major parties.

Despite this, Daniel Hannan believes the ban was made on “a false premise” and was the end result of a “nasty tabloid campaign”. Probably not the official Tory line.