Look to Europe if you want to see the real face of the Conservative Party

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 9th Oct 2009

Graham Watson says "look to the European Parliament" to see the true face of the Conservative Party

On Thursday afternoon, David Cameron stood in front of the Conservative Party in Manchester and claimed to be the head of a "progressive", "compassionate" and "fair" party, ready to provide "responsible government".

The Tories want to shed their 'nasty party' image and are hoping that voters will forget their years in government when Britain became truly unequal and unnervingly intolerant. They hope that Cameron's slick PR skills will make their party acceptable to an electorate that is fed up with Labour.

However, away from the Westminster spotlight, the Conservatives have shown their true face, and it is not a pretty one.

In July, David Cameron fulfilled a pledge to take his MEPs out of the mainstream centre-right grouping in the European Parliament. In doing so he snubbed Angela Merkel, Nicholas Sarkozy and the leaders of all the other ruling centre-right parties around Europe; an action that I fear has severely damaged Britain's reputation in Europe's capitals.

What was most shocking however, was his choice of friends in the new European Conservative and Reformists Group (ECR). Much has been made in the British media about the leader of this group and his links to far-right Polish nationalist groups. Even more has been said about the Conservatives' Latvian partners and their celebration of a notorious Waffen-SS division.

Little attention has been paid to the words and actions of British Conservative MEPs though.

Roger Helmer, MEP for the East Midlands, has defended the homophobia that is rife amongst some of his Eastern-European colleagues (although to Helmer, '"Homophobia" is merely a propaganda device designed to denigrate and stigmatise those holding conventional opinions'). Having pledged support to his Polish friends in opposing homosexual marriage, let's hope he does not also call for the Section 28-type laws that Lithuanian ECR MEPs have just backed.

And you would certainly not find Roger Helmer riding his bicycle to work either. In an extraordinary outburst, he said he was sick of being "constantly nagged about the carbon footprint we are responsible for". Apparently it is wrong to discourage people from buying a Range Rover or flying to Thailand because of "that carbon myth".

It would appear Roger Helmer is not the only one out-of-step with Cameron's "green" ideas; I have just read an article by Giles Chichester, my Conservative counterpart in the South West, who seemingly denies the science behind climate change.

Not so progressive or responsible when it comes to the environment then. What about the economy?

I was appalled when, just before the European Parliament rose for elections in June, Conservative MEPs voted against measures calling for the closure of tax havens for the rich, which deprive Britain billions of pounds every year. No sign of "fairness" here.

All of this is without mention of Tory MEP Daniel Hannan. I have heard Hannan say some pretty outrageous things in the European Parliament, but his comments about the NHS shocked even me. I would not even expect an admirer of Enoch Powell to embark upon a world tour campaigning against the NHS and the idea of universal healthcare provision.

Of course there are differences of opinion in every political party, and attempts to stamp a single belief on others would be worthy of strong condemnation in itself. However, you do have to question the philosophy of a leadership that will defend the likes of Roger Helmer and Daniel Hannan, but throw out of the party Edward McMillan-Scott, who stood against a person that he believed to be bigoted and unsuitable to do the job of Vice-President of the European Parliament.

Many Conservatives in the European Parliament are hard working and well principled, and regard these incidents with the same disbelief as you and I. However, there are a significant number of Tories who are happy to ride the wave of Labour's failure all the way to Downing Street. There is little that is progressive, compassionate or fair about David Cameron's Conservatives, and for evidence of this you need look no further than the European Parliament.