18 May 2014 – For Immediate Release
CAMERON COME CLEAN OVER EURO-ALLIANCE: VOTERS IN BRITAIN DESERVE ANSWERS
In an open letter to British PM David Cameron, leader of Britain’s new 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) Dirk Hazell calls for “answers the British people are entitled to know before voting on Thursday”. With mounting evidence that Cameron’s MEPs intend to go into coalition in Brussels with anti-immigrant and anti-EU parties, Hazell urges Britain’s Prime Minister to “come clean”.
“Do Cameron and mainstream Conservative voters really intend to support the UKIP militant tendency when they vote this week in what will be a defining European election?”, notes Hazell: “Instead, Cameron can save his place in history by expelling from the Conservative Party his UKIP militant tendency and dissolving his ECR Group before it collapses, or worse still lurches to the even harder right.”.
“Cameron has lost control of his fringe Euro-Group. Since January 2013, Tory-led ECR Group Euro-MPs voted two-thirds of the time with Farage’s UKIP-led EFD Group. Now Conservative MEPs appear intent on joining with them to form an anti-immigrant, anti-EU grouping in the European Parliament. Cameron’s Brussels boys seem to be marching to hard right tunes, ever further away from Europe’s centre ground”, said Hazell.
Last month (Thurs - 24 Apr), anti-EU Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan flew to Helsinki to meet with leader of the radical right-wing populist Finns Party, Timo Soini. And yesterday (Sat – 17 May), leader of Cameron’s ECR Euro-group Martin Callanan MEP failed to rule out Conservative MEPs partnering in Brussels with hard right, anti-EU parties. Instead, Callanan observed that he has “a very good relationship” with MEP Morten Messerschmidt from the anti-immigrant Danish People’s party.
Hazell wrote to the British Prime Minister (please see attached): “The EPP has always supported the best practicable inter-government relations. Sadly, British influence has been reduced by your decision to order Conservative MEPs out of the EPP Group in 2009, yet now you need support in both the Council and Parliament from natural allies on the mainstream centre-right”.
On Tuesday (13 May), Hazell was joined on BBC TV’s Daily Politics Show by former head of the Confederation of British Industry Digby Jones. Lord Jones agreed with Hazell that Cameron was wrong to flounce out of the powerful EPP political family of Angela Merkel and other mainstream centre-right EU leaders. “By sustaining this shoddy and shaming alliance, Cameron is taking the UK to the brink of Brexit. Britain should be leading, not leaving, the EU. Instead, Cameron puts his own survival as party leader ahead of the British national interest. Cameron is caving into UKIP, but appeasement never works!”, warns Hazell.
As Britain prepares to vote in Thursday’s (22 May) Euro-election, Hazell explains: “The EPP is the most positive and powerful force for European reform. A vote for the 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) is a vote for giving Britain a strong voice where it matters: inside the EPP at the heart of Europe. As my letter to the PM asks, where will his Conservative MEPs sit?”
“4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) MEPs will sit with the EPP Group in the European Parliament. We hope the British centre-right will once again unite within our pro-EU family. Those Conservative MEPs who do not want to be taken over by the Hannan bandwagon of UKIP sympathisers are welcome to join us in the centre ground, centre-right EPP family. While Cameron may wish to back himself into a corner, other Conservatives can choose to escape the past and look to the future”, concludes Hazell.
Europe’s leading city: London - Europe’s leading party: EPP
ENDS
Editor’s Note: The 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) represents a positive platform of policies, reflecting a refreshing and forward-looking interpretation of mainstream centre ground and centre-right values. This new British political party embraces the 4 fundamental EU freedoms of movement for people, goods, services and capital – plus the 4 freedoms outlined in US President FD Roosevelt’s iconic 1941 State of the Union address, namely: freedoms of speech and worship, freedoms from want and fear.
The 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) is fielding a full list of eight candidates in the London region on Thursday 22 May, and has the political support of the EU’s largest political family, the mainstream centre-right EPP. Elected 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) MEPs will join the EPP Group in the European Parliament when it reconvenes in the first week of July.