Paul Sykes has accepted my challenge to a public debate between him and me on the UK’s relationship with the rest of Europe.

This is much needed to re-balance his highly tendacious set of allegations that feature in newspapers across Britain yesterday when he launched his Eurosceptic campaign with adverts in many of the national papers. The Telegraph included a full page ad, with a half page in The Times, and quarter pages in the Mail, Express and Sun. Locally the Yorkshire Post had a full page ad with the Yorkshire Evening Post a half. Whether this is replicated across the country remains to be seen, but in any case it must have cost a fortune.

His advertisements make absurd claims, that I commented on in my blog last Tuesday (October 10). But to try to back them up, he quotes two opinion polls which he himself commissioned and which, unsurprisingly, comes up with results that he hopes will cause people to swallow his arguments.

The poll, conducted for him by YouGov, says that 87 per cent of people want a referendum on the EU’s powers. His full question is “Some people have called for a referendum on whether powers over fishing, farming, rules and regulations, law-making and borders being returned to the British Parliament from the European Union. Would you support or oppose a campaign to hold such a referendum?”

It is a well known feature of polls that a question “Do you think there should be a referendum on X [insert issue of choice]” tend to produce large majorities in favour, which inevitably gives Sykes the result he wants. On top of that, there is plenty of ambiguity in “rules and regulations, law-making and borders” - all rather loose descriptions, left open to interpretation. Of course, the fact that the British Parliament has anyway not relinquished powers over such matters, but simply agreed that Britain should act jointly with neighbouring countries on those aspects where we are interdependent, does not feature in his loaded question. Nor does he specify that there is more than one parliament involved: the European Parliament, (and, come to that, the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly) exercise scrutiny and rights to approve or not legislation adopted at their level – and it is the British Parliament that has determined which level is appropriate. It is also worth pointing out that 87 per cent of people support calls for a referendum and not the “return of powers”.

The same goes for the second questions in his poll – how much information have you received in the last 12 months from your MP or MEP about the European Union? Ninety five per cent have heard nothing or very little but again we don’t actually learn anyone’s views on Europe.

Sykes's whole campaign, along with the second question, implies that people are not properly informed about the European Union, which is true – but this suggests a lot of the answers to the first question will have been given using only the ambiguous knowledge they have gained from reading the question itself.

The latter question is also, intentionally or not, begging a very different question. If you replaced the “European Union” with almost any other subject you would get the same response. Unfortunately MPs and especially MEPs do have the money to contact each constituent every year – it is simply not in their budget.

I have around five million constituents in Yorkshire and the Humber and as much as I would like to keep all of them individually and directly informed about the European Union, it is simply not possible. I have to hope that the media will give me some unbiased coverage. I certainly cannot pay for a particular standpoint to be given blanket space in the way that Mr Sykes can! According to the Newspaper Marketing Agency, the cost for his ad in the Telegraph alone will have cost £45,000.

This is why I am glad Sykes has agreed to debate the issues with me. There is no way pro-Europeans can compete on a par with Sykes’s campaign financially but I know when I meet him head on I will have facts behind me rather than myth.

As to not hearing from your MEP, if you would like to hear from me four times a year you can sign up to my mailing list for my quarterly report, which will give you regular information on the EU, by emailing richard@richardcorbett.org.uk. You may also find interesting items on my modest website www.richardcorbett.org.uk.