In an interview on Radio 4 on Monday, Lord Heseltine joined the ever-growing number of Tories lining up to quote their opposition to Cameron's pledge to withdraw Conservative MEPs from the centre-right mainstream. First, he made some interesting comment:

"I think that's wrong. He knows it and I've told him, and indeed I've made it clear that I will say so if it happens. It hasn't happened and I hope it doesn't happen. But I will also tell you something else: although I happen to think it's an important issue down in the Bull and Bush, there's not a vote to be gained or lost over the issue."

Now there's an interesting point. If there's not a vote to be gained or lost, why on earth is Cameron pursuing it? The answer, of course, is that there are votes of a sort: he had to court the hard-line eurosceptic faction in his party during his own leadership election campaign, and EPP withdrawal was the promise he used to win them over.

More interesting still, however, was his assessment of Cameron's integrity over the issue:

"The reality of politics today for any government is that you have to get on with your European colleagues. There is a team there, they are important to you, they are making decisions. You are either on the team or you're not, and if you're not on the team, you're selling out British interests. David Cameron would never do that. So in reality, the new Conservative government, when it's formed, will do what every Conservative government has done since the 1960s and that is to pursue a broadly pro-European policy."

Meanwhile, on quite a different matter, I was delighted to be voted Deputy Leader of the EPLP (i.e. the Labour MEPs) last night by a 75% majority against one other candidate. I am chuffed to receive such confidence from those who know my work the best.