Labour MEP for Yorkshire & Humber
My opinion piece on migration and the EU has just been published by New Statesman: If we want to take seriously people’s concerns about immigration, first and foremost we must be honest about what gives rise to those concerns. And if immigration is a problem, it is emphatically not an EU problem. It suits the […]
I gave an extended video and written interview to ITV News today on the behind-the-scenes details of the European Council summit. A very difficult meeting to chair. You’ve got 28 prima donnas around the table who all think they are right and usually get their own way domestically. They’re suddenly in a meeting where none […]
All eyes are on this evening’s crunch “summit” (European Council) meeting in Brussels, where David Cameron hopes to clinch a deal for his EU reform agenda. But how do these meetings really work? What happens if there is disagreement? Who will help broker the deal? I thought I’d give my behind-the-scenes insight (I used to […]
My latest vlog covers what to expect from the upcoming EU summit.
My analysis of Cameron’s current EU negotiations was published this morning in Europe’s World: David Cameron seemed pleased with himself earlier this month when he stood up in the House of Commons and finally announced the details of the draft deal for his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU – a draft that will […]
Much is being made of the fact that, on some aspects of Cameron’s proposed EU deal, secondary legislation will have to pass through the European Parliament, which (it’s claimed) might water it down or even reject it. Legally speaking this is of course true. The European Parliament, like any other parliament, is by definition free […]
This afternoon, British trade unionists from the highly skilled steel industry descended on Brussels with thousands of their colleagues from across Europe. Today saw workers rally outside a European Commission conference on the ‘future of energy intensive industries’, which among other things discussed the all-important reform of EU trade defence policies. The protest takes place […]
I have a feeling David Campbell Bannerman MEP is making a bid to seize the coveted title of ‘Most Dishonest Tory Eurosceptic’ from his colleague Dan Hannan. His opinion piece in the Telegraph yesterday is truly virtuosic. In the first half of the piece, where he lists his complaints about our current EU membership, it’s no […]
Today I had the pleasure of speaking to students at a school in York about how the EU works, what the key issues facing our continent are, and how we can best tackle such issues. Naturally, the talk with the students gravitated toward the looming referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the EU. And it’s […]
In their latest attempt to laugh off Cameron’s draft renegotiation deal, hardcore Tory eurosceptics are now arguing that the proposed red card for national parliaments doesn’t go far enough. They insist instead that the British parliament, and therefore the parliaments of every other EU country, should not only be better involved before European legislation is […]
A perennial problem with the Leave campaign is that they have no idea what situation we’d find ourselves in if we quit the EU. Some of them glibly say we’d get a trade deal with the EU, keeping full access to the European market for our exports. Never mind that no country outside the EU […]
I address the European Parliament on Cameron’s draft reform deal.
I wrote an article for Labour Movement for Europe’s op-ed series, assessing Cameron’s draft deal and what happens next in the ongoing debate about Britain’s EU membership. Are moments like these the first signs of genuine political engagement from a prime minister who has, up till now, been obsessed with trying to keep a lid […]
Last week I had an interesting conversation with the small team behind a new website, info4migrants.co.uk, based in West Yorkshire. It’s early days, but info4migrants looks like it could develop into an invaluable resource. There’s been a lot of debate recently about ways to help migrants integrate into British society, with Cameron making a series […]
Today is World Cancer Day — and we are reminded of the sad fact that, with people now living longer, the risk of getting cancer is dramatically increasing. In 2012, there were an estimated 3.4 million new cases of cancer in Europe, an average of 254 new cancer cases for every 100,000 Europeans. In Yorkshire […]
Eurosceptic campaigners were up very early this morning, rubbishing Cameron’s draft EU deal as pointless and inconsequential before it was even published. But of course: if you want to stick to the hackneyed old line that the EU is unreformable, then you have to find some way to dismiss every single reform, and this is […]
Difficulties in securing a deal on Cameron’s EU proposals, widely reported today, were predictable as soon as Cameron added the subject of EU migrants’ benefits to his list of demands. This issue didn’t feature in his original Bloomberg speech, where he first set out his intention to reform the European Union and hold a referendum. […]
My letter to the Telegraph was published over the weekend: SIR – European countries have not covered themselves in glory when it comes to addressing the migrant crisis. But it is wrong to suggest that the proposal to suspend Greece from the Schengen area is characteristic of a dictatorship. These proposals will be put to […]
This week, the Stronger In campaign sent a newsletter called Europe & You to households across Britain. It does a good job of presenting the hard-headed economic case for our continuing EU membership. Earlier this week, a group of journalists got together to launch an excellent new initiative called InFacts, dedicated to fact-checking EU campaign […]
Can the permission granted for limited scallop dredging taking place in one section of Cardigan Bay (a Special Area of Conservation) be extended to another part of the same SAC and remain compatible with the Habitats Directive?
The European Investment Bank is the bank of the EU’s member states. The bank’s lending to the UK has increased by 37% since 2012. Over the last year, investment into the UK from the bank accounted for 11.2% of all EIB lending to member states — the highest of any country. These loans are helping, […]
I talk about the pros and cons of EU regulation in a parliamentary debate.
Along with many MEP colleagues, I’ve received a large number of emails from constituents, raising concerns about the New Alliance for Food Security. The European Parliament’s Committee on Development is preparing a report on the New Alliance. The report is due to be voted on in April and as part of the preparation, the Committee […]
I speak in Parliament about how the EU can help support the steel industry in Britain.
