Labour MEP for Yorkshire & Humber
Whether it’s a blip or not, UKIP’s surge in the opinion polls should be looked at in a wider context: the combined far-right vote. In the last European election, UKIP and the BNP together got nearly 23%. The BNP’s subsequent collapse, with its voters mostly switching to UKIP, means that UKIP’s starting point in this election […]
The Ukrainian crisis has revealed that Vladimir Putin aims to destabilise the EU. Russia is actively supporting and even financing anti-EU parties, even though they’re mostly on the extreme right: In Ukraine, he simply wants to grab territory that he believes rightly belongs to him. In the European Union, he hopes that his backing of fringe […]
As so much of the debate about Europe has simply been focusing on the single market, it’s worth recalling that the EU is about much more than trade. When we joined the EU (then the EEC), we actually left the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) because we wanted more than free trade: we wanted to […]
Nearly 150 students came to the hustings with candidates from five parties at the University of York yesterday. In their show of hands afterwards, I was chuffed that more said they would vote Labour than for any other party. The debate was good. It was especially notable for Conservative MEP Tim Kirkhope turning his fire […]
I was invited to speak to the British Bankers’ Association this morning on the future of the EU, along with the distinguished journalist Simon Nixon of the Wall Street Journal. He and I actually agreed on many of the issues and concerns raised: that there is no great danger of the Eurozone ‘caucussing’ on other […]
Paul Sykes, Yorkshire’s multimillionaire, has a view on EU membership diametrically opposed to that of most businesses in Britain. He doesn’t hesitate to proclaim that British businesses hate the EU, but this is not true: Confederation of British Industry supports EU membership (80% of companies want us to stay in) Federation of Small Businesses supports EU […]
It’s ten years this month since eight central and eastern European countries (and two Commonwealth countries, Malta and Cyprus) joined the EU. This was a historic achievement, bringing former Communist dictatorships into the family of democratic countries that constitute the EU — helping to anchor peace, stability and human rights in a potentially volatile area. […]
The hustings debate with candidates from each party, organised by the Federation of Small Businesses in Sheffield on Wednesday, was exactly what a debate should be: about different options for policies and where the parties stand on them, rather than on the existence of the EU and our membership of it — this is a […]
Is the election turning into a two horse race between Labour and UKIP? I certainly get that impression when out campaigning in some areas. Which makes for a clear dividing line explainable in one sentence. Leaving the EU risks economic catastrophe — better to reform, change and improve the EU from inside.
Even in apparently prosperous Northallerton, there is now a food bank helping people who are unable to always afford food for their families. The cost-of-living crisis means that not only the homeless and the unemployed, but even people in work are finding it difficult if they are on the minimum wage, as so many are. […]
On Saturday night, I participated in a lively and informative hustings — with candidates from five different parties — organised by the Motorcycle Action Group’s Yorkshire region. Labour’s Members of the European Parliament have always had good links with MAG and, we like to think, an understanding of their concerns, ever since one of our MEPs, Roger […]
W sobotÄ™ odwiedziÅ‚em polskÄ… rodzinÄ™, w takim samym dniu jak dostaÅ‚a szkodliwÄ… ulotkÄ™ Ukip’a (UK Independence Party – Partia NiepodlegÅ‚oÅ›ci Zjednoczonego Królestwa). W jej maÅ‚ym uporzÄ…dkowanym apartamencie, sÅ‚yszaÅ‚em o jej rodzicach, które przedtem przyjechali do Anglii aby pracować za pÅ‚acÄ™ minimalnÄ… w rolach, których żaden Brytyjczyk nie chciaÅ‚. Chociaż jeden z nich jest wykwalifikowanym nauczycielem, […]
I visited a Polish family in Bradford yesterday, the same day that UKIP’s poisonous election leaflet landed on their doorstep. In their small but impeccably clean and tidy flat, I heard about how both parents came to work here on the minimum wage, doing jobs that no Brit had applied for. Although one is a […]
Those who say Labour doesn’t engage enough with our sister parties on the continent and beyond would have been pleasantly surprised by the numbers of high-profile Labour figures who paticipated in the Progressive Governance Conference in Amsterdam on Thursday and Friday. From Chuka Umunna to Stella Creasy, John McTernan, Stewart Wood, Alison McGovern, Roger Liddle, […]
One of the innovations of this European election is that the major political party groupings in Europe have each announced in advance of the elections who their preferred candidate is for the next President of the European Commission. This has been encouraged by the latest set of reforms to the EU democratic system. These mean that, […]