UK Conservatives lose leadership of new group

The UK Conservatives have lost the leadership of the new political group that they formed in the European Parliament, after a rebellion by one of their EU-friendly members.

The 55-member anti-federalist European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group was formed by 26 MEPs of the UK Conservatives in June, with 15 MEPs from the Polish Justice and Law party, nine Czech Civic Democrats and another five MEPs from five other countries.

But Edward McMillan-Scott, a UK Conservative MEP since 1984 and a vice-president of the Parliament since 2007, defied his party bosses and stood as an independent candidate for vice-president.

Polish revenge

As the ECR's candidate for a Parliament vice-presidency, Polish MEP Michal Kamin´ski of the Justice and Law Party had expected to get elected. When he lost out, the Polish members of the ECR sought revenge in the elections for the group leadership. Kamin´ski was elected group leader ahead of Timothy Kirkhope, leader of the UK Conservative delegation.

McMillan-Scott was elected to a vice-presidency because German centre-right MEPs were trying to prevent German Liberal MEP Silvana Koch-Mehrin from being elected and wanted a 15th candidate to stand for the 14 posts of vice-president.

Koch-Mehrin had annoyed them with what they saw as attempts during the European Parliament elections campaign to hide her poor attendance record.

She also upset male MEPs with a magazine interview in which she claimed that prostitutes flocked to Strasbourg during plenary weeks because of the increased business opportunities.

In the event, Koch-Mehrin came last in the first two voting rounds but in the third she managed to squeeze ahead of Kamin´ski with 12 more votes. The German Greens did not want to vote for a right-wing Pole as vice-president.

‘Tory at the top'

In the aftermath of the contest, McMillan-Scott was thrown out of the Conservative Party by the national party leader David Cameron, and out of the ECR group, bringing its membership down to 54. He said: “Rather than withdrawing the whip, David Cameron should be pleased that a Tory is still at the top in Europe.”

McMillan-Scott said that the public wanted “real democracy among their parliamentarians, in Brussels or Westminster”.

Glenys Wilmott, leader of the UK Labour MEPs, said: “It was only going to be a matter of time until the real splits in the Tory delegation became apparent and the whole group will fall apart.”