Labour MEP for Yorkshire & Humber
Thanks to all those who sent such kind messages following my election to the European Parliament. I’m sorry not to be able to reply individually to so many hundreds of messages, emails, tweets, texts, posts, and more. Although I’m delighted to have won my seat back from the BNP, it’s disappointing that we so narrowly […]
Tonight saw the Labour Party bolster its influence in the European Parliament, winning new seats in many of the UK’s regions, including Yorkshire and the Humber — which re-elected Richard Corbett. UKIP managed little more than to add to the previous BNP votes to their 2009 results along with support from disgruntled Conservatives (UKIP + BNP in […]
Those who claim that Labour is shying away from discussing Europe in the European elections are wrong. For a start, we’ve said very clearly that we will have no truck with the idea of leaving the EU, which would risk economic disaster. Ed Miliband was very clear on ITV News: My priority is not exiting the European Union and […]
Question What systemic plan has the Commission put in place for ex-post evaluation of the 2013 reform of the common fisheries policy? Answer Under Article 49 of the regulation on the common fisheries policy, the Commission is obliged to report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the functioning of the Common Fisheries […]
The Guardian has taken a stab at the notoriously difficult task of predicting the outcome of European elections on Thursday, seat by seat, using a combination of recent national polls and including an attempt to model regional differences. In my region of Yorkshire & Humber, the poll implies a three-way tie between Labour (2 seats), […]
In the run-up to a national election, working in politics can seem even more exhausting than usual. But occasionally you receive an email — this from a Hertfordshire resident I’ve never met — which reminds you that it can also be immensely rewarding: Dear Richard, My voting card for the May 22 elections has been making […]
Mark Field, Conservative MP, sticks his head above the parapet to talk sense: ‘Britain must lead in Europe to remain a financial powerhouse‘: The temporary peace David Cameron brokered within the Conservative Party may yet unravel if UKIP make the gains they are expected to on 22 May. Many colleagues will misinterpret a robust electoral showing […]
Quite apart from their policy embarrassments and the disingenuous attempts of their leader to paint himself as some kind of anti-establishment everyman, UKIP faces embarrassment after embarassment from its members, candidates and leadership. Here’s just a summary from the recent few days, with links to further reading: In a ‘cash for seats’ scandal, UKIP MEPs and candidates in […]
Last night, I appeared alongside Conservative, Lib Dem and UKIP candidates on ITV Yorkshire’s late-night politics show, Last Orders. You can watch the video here.
Labour International, the international section of the British Labour party, has relaunched its website and is leading with an editorial I wrote about what’s at stake in the upcoming European elections: It is important for the future of Britain that the largest party in this election should be a pro-European one: Labour. The alternative — a UKIP victory — would be a huge boost […]
If recent polling is to be believed, Labour stand to be the only party that’s in a credible position to represent British interests in the European Parliament. Besides being the party with the most sensible policies (stay inside the EU, but improve, change and reform it), over the next five years Labour is likely to be the only one […]
Turnout in European elections has become an issue, with commentators focusing on its lower level than national elections and its downward trend over the years. Of course, a higher turnout is always better. But actually, it’s normal that European elections should have a lower turnout. After all, most political issues are decided by our national parliament, not […]
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.
