Today, (Tues - 30 Sept), at the Conservative Party’s annual conference held in Birmingham, Tory Euro-MPs are determined to defy Cameron.  “By inviting Farage’s friend Timo Soini, populist leader of the anti-immigrant and anti-EU True Finn party, to speak at this morning’s Conservative-led ECR Group fringe meeting Conservative MEPs want to snub Cameron.  The Hannan bandwagon of UKIP sympathisers is in charge and fighting to secure Brexit.  This is no longer a rebellion, but a takeover”, commented leader of Britain’s 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) Dirk Hazell.

Timo Soini was in Birmingham two years ago to deliver a keynote address at UKIP’s 2012 party conference.  “Timo Soini’s return to Birmingham exposes Cameron’s misguided appeasement of the UKIP Militant Tendency within the Conservative Party.  The Conservative Party’s leadership has surrendered control to the Euro-rebels”, stated Hazell.  As Conservative London region chairman during the 2005 general election, Hazell saw first-hand the growth of the Tory’s UKIP militant tendency - with Cameron making matters worse through his irresponsible promise to leave the EPP during his Conservative Party leadership bid.

As leading British media commentators highlight increasing chances that the Conservative Party will finally split over Europe, speeches by senior Conservative MPs Ken Clarke and John Redwood yesterday (Mon - 29 Sept) exposed hardening divisions as rebels call for UKIP-Tory pacts.

“John Redwood’s threat that businesses should ‘keep out and not express a corporate view’ on Europe is a hypocritical and menacing attack on freedom. It is reckless anti-EU Tories who daily undermine Britain’s strategic investment prospects and voice across Europe and beyond.  British influence was sharply reduced when Cameron marched his Tory MEPs out of the EPP Group in 2009, and it has been downhill ever since”, observed Hazell: “Given Boris Johnson’s renewed invitation to UKIP’s boss Nigel Farage to join the Conservative Party, the split looks virtually inevitable - unless remaining pro-Europeans wish to serve under UKIP.”

Both British PM David Cameron and the Mayor of London Boris Johnson appear prepared to campaign for Britain to exit the EU if the Conservative renegotiation plans fail to deliver a special deal for the UK.  “Cameron needs to come clean with the British people over his EU strategy.  Short-term tactics and media Euro-spin are no substitute for a national strategy.  Cameron must explain how the Tories plan to stop Brexit”, said Hazell.

Tomorrow (Wed - 1 Oct) lunchtime, Cameron’s nominee as Britain’s European Commissioner - Lord Hill of Oareford - will be grilled for three hours by the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee.  “It is good to see Jonathan Hill vow to keep Britain in the EU, but Hill’s credibility is undermined as the British Conservative-led ECR Group lurches to the harder right and Cameron loses control”, warned Hazell.

“Before Britain went to the polls on Thursday 22 May, our 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) asked both the Prime Minister as leader of the Conservative Party and also the leader of the Conservative MEPs to come clean about their intended euro-allies.  They instead concealed from the British people what was already planned.  In reality UKIP-sympathiser Daniel Hannan MEP - not David Cameron - runs the Conservative Party in Brussels: alone good enough reason for British business to speak out”, explained Hazell.

Two of anti-EU MEP Hannan’s closest friends and allies - former Tory MPs Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless - recently defected to UKIP.  -  One-time special adviser to Conservative party leader Michael Howard, Hannan is currently boycotting this year’s Conservative Party conference.  Seen as the UKIP Trojan Horse in the Tory Party, Hannan is becoming increasingly strident in defying Cameron and opposing Britain’s EU membership.

The pro-European 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) gives centre ground, centre-right pro-European people in the UK the chance to be back at the heart of Europe, inside the mainstream EPP family.  “By refusing to face down UKIP, instead putting his own survival as party leader ahead of the British national interest, Cameron is taking Britain to the brink of Brexit.  -  We offer an alternative.  We are determined to repair the damage Cameron created.  We believe in bringing people together, not driving them apart.  Britain should lead not leave the EU”, concluded Hazell.

FEDERALISM FOR BRITAIN: FOR ONCE NIGEL FARAGE IS RIGHT SAY PRO-EUROPEANS

On Thursday (18 Sept), Scotland will face a historic decision as millions of Scots decide the United Kingdom’s future after 307 years of Union.  This afternoon (Tues – 16 Sept), leader of Britain’s new 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) Dirk Hazell commented: “Whatever the outcome of Thursday’s vote, Britain now urgently needs a new constitutional settlement more empowering even than the great 1832 Reform Act was then.”

“Cameron lacks strategic thinking.  Cameron’s failed tactics bring Britain to the brink of Scottish separation and to leaving the EU.  People want a genuine say over their own future: greater control over decisions affecting their lives.  In our modern global village, this must be based on stronger local and regional representation”, continued Hazell: “The UKIP militant tendency in the British Conservative Party misrepresents federalism as a fearful ‘F-word’ – but within UKIP itself Nigel Farage is right to call for a federal United Kingdom: even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day!”

“If, unlike the reactionary elitism of Cameron’s self-styled ‘effing Tories’, Farage is prepared to empower people from the bottom up, we are with him on that”, welcomed Hazell: “Obviously, as pro-Europeans we deplore UKIP’s determination to take Britain out of the EU.  But we agree Britain must change from within.  We must compensate for the demands of a globalised world.  Cameron’s arrogant ‘top down’ politics, concentrating so much power and wealth in the hands of the few, must be replaced with real ‘bottom up’ politics:  more real decisions in politics must be more localised.”

As the House of Commons prepares for possible recall, British PM David Cameron’s lack of judgment  comes under ever closer scrutiny.  “Cameron should have listened to Gordon Brown back in June.  Cameron misjudged the underlying dynamics of the EU and Scottish referendums, choosing the wrong combination of questions.  Scotland’s independence and Britain’s EU membership are closely entwined.  We must now study carefully the Scottish campaign, if we are to avoid repeating mistakes during a future EU referendum”, noted Hazell.

“A British Basic Law, similar to Germany’s, would strengthen Britain’s regional identity and protect our sovereignty in the EU”, said Hazell: “Eight hundred years after the Magna Carta was signed in 1215, a new deal is needed to return power to the people: enshrining our rights in a British written constitution based on the principle of subsidiarity.  We should urgently update Hansard Society proposals made in 1976, turbo-charging reform of the House of Commons and House of Lords.  Strengthening links between the elected and the electorate is ever more essential.”

Outlining 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) proposals, Hazell presented the following ten suggestions for a federal Britain:-

1.     marking the eight hundredth anniversary of the Magna Carta with a written Constitution for the British Federation (embracing all countries plus the English regions that make up the UK).

2.     devolving no less power anywhere in the British Federation than will be given to Scotland if it remains part of the UK.

3.     creating a new emphasis on ‘bottom up’ - not ‘top down’ - political power, with each country and English region responsible for all policy areas not specifically reserved to the British Federal Parliament and Government.  This would resemble the successful Land federal structure in Germany.

4.     electing representatives at all levels of government on a territorial basis, with proportionality achieved through top up lists.

5.     capping the House of Commons at no more than 500 MPs.

6.     limiting a reformed House of Peers to no more than 150 Peers, appointed by the British Federation’s countries and regions.

7.     closing the Privy Council and creating a British Federal Constitutional Division of the Supreme Court.

8.     mainly state funding political parties with transparent limits.

9.     entrenching into the British Constitution the European Convention on Human Rights.

10.   creating a new Council of Isles: representatives of the British Federation, its countries and regions, plus all other jurisdictions within the British Isles to be invited to regular, public meetings - building on the current British-Irish Council - to discuss matters of mutual interest and to promote greater co-operation.

“As a refreshing alternative, the pro-European 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) gives centre ground, centre-right pro-European people in the UK the chance to return to the heart of Europe, inside the mainstream EPP family.  We will begin to repair the damage Cameron created.  We believe in bringing people together, not driving them apart, and will strive for a modern constitution putting people first”, concluded Hazell.                       ENDS

New European's evidence - http://bit.ly/1ns1JYv  - to the House of Commons Select Committee on voter engagement - http://bit.ly/1ePoEcc - shows that most non-British EU nationals in each of five reported London Boroughs were not allowed to vote in May's European election.

This is contrary to Articles 20(2)(b) and 22 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 

83% of such voters were disenfranchised in two of these boroughs: Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham.