The North West: Home of Euro-Sleaze

The last five years have been an interesting period for the North West in terms of euro-politics. Despite only having nine MEPs in the region, five of them have been exposed as employing their wives, one was found guilty of an expense scandal that dwarfs everything seen from our MPs in the last couple of weeks, one defected to another party and not one but two of them are competing for the title of Britain’s laziest MEP.

The 2004 European vote gave us three Labour, three Tory, two Lib Dem and a UKIP MEP, but it didn’t stay that way for long. In 2007 Sajjad Karim, the Liberal Democrat Muslim MEP defected to the Tories claiming that the Lib Dems had "lost their way". Luckily, his conversion to euroscepticism coincided with being voted into second place on the Lib Dem list for the North West region for this coming election, leaving him likely to lose his seat.

Keeping it in the family
It seems that our North West MEPs believe in keeping it in the family. Most famously, Conservative MEP Den Dover was forced resign as chief whip in Brussels after it was disclosed that he had secretly handed over a whopping £758,000 in staffing allowances over seven years to a company run by his wife and daughter.

Sir Robert Atkins, the lead Conservative candidate in this election, employs his wife, Dulcie (Lady Atkins), as a secretary on £30-40k and his son, James, worked for him in Brussels until 2004.

David Sumberg, also a Conservative MEP pays his wife an astonishing £54,000 per year for secretarial work, making her one of the highest paid secretaries in Britain, earning nearly as much as he does.

Lib Dem then Tory MEP, Sajjad Karrim, also hired his wife Zahida on £26,000 per year to run his office, despite the fact that she was already working two days a week as a teacher.

Not wanting to be left out, Brian Simpson, the Labour MEP, hired both his son and his wife.

Britain’s Laziest MEP
Last year, David Sumberg, Conservative MEP, was labelled ‘Britain’s Laziest MEP’ by the News of the World after it was revealed that he has made just two speeches in four years. On top of this he has an abysmal attendance record, taking part in just 46% of votes in the European Parliament.

But he has stiff competition for the title of ‘Britain’s Laziest MEP’. Fellow North West MEP, John Whittaker, the UKIP representative, actually voted even less, managing an unbelievable 45% attendance record. For a member of the party that claims to be the opposition to the EU, John Whittaker didn’t spend a great deal of time voting against anything.

Free tickets
Labour MEP, Arlene McCarthy often received publicity for appearing to stand up for football fans in the North West, until it was revealed by the Sun that she was receiving free Premiership VIP tickets, sometimes four at a time, while the fans she was supposedly representing were forking out ever higher ticket prices.

Nick Griffin
To top off the misery, the North West is the primary target of the BNP, where its leader Nick Griffin is standing, and plenty of eyes around the world will be watching to see whether we elect this most unpleasant man into public office.

More choice than ever
The good news for the coming election is that there is more choice than ever. For people not wanting to reward the main parties over their expense abuses, and not wanting to vote for extremists like the BNP and UKIP, there are plenty of alternatives. The English Democrats, the Jury Team (all independents), the Christian Party, the Green Party, No2EU (a Trades Union movement), and the Socialist Labour Party are all standing.

Libertas
There is also the new Libertas party, which is the first party ever to have candidates standing right across Europe, campaigning to radically reform the European Union and stamp out sleaze. Formed out of the campaign group that successfully stopped the Lisbon constitution in Ireland, Libertas looks set to be a major new force for change in Europe.