David Cameron weakens Conservative councillors in Europe

12.00.00am GMT Thu 4th Feb 2010

Tory Councillors have been forced to ally with a group of right-wing extremists, after David Cameron ordered all Conservatives involved in EU law-making to break ties with the mainstream centre-right political grouping.

Councillor Sir Simon Day and Councillor Ann Stribley are the Conservative representatives for South West local authorities on the European Committee of the Regions, a body that voices the opinion local government in the EU. They had previously sat with conservatives in the European People's Party (EPP), the largest and most influential political family in the EU.

However, in what is seen as a sop to a sizeable right-wing faction in the UK Conservatives, Cameron pulled his party out of the EPP and formed a new, much smaller group. Its members and Polish leader have been dogged by allegations that they are homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic.

Local Lib Dem Euro-MP Graham Watson said;

"Ex-PR man Cameron has tried to rid the Conservatives of their "nasty party" image. By allying with extremists in Europe the mask has slipped. It has exposed the nature of the new Conservatives and castrated their influence in Europe."

"Sir Simon and Ann Stribley are hard working and highly respected, and it is a shame that Cameron's mindless crusade for power has put local Councillors in this position and weakened their voice in Europe.

"I think this speaks volumes about Cameron's character and how damaging a Conservative Government could be."

Notes:

In July 2009, the Conservatives pulled out of the EPP grouping (mainstream centre-right) in the European Parliament and established a new alliance with radical Eastern European MEPs, the controversial European Conservative and Reformists Group (ECR).

This has considerably reduced the influence of the Conservatives. The ECR has just 55 MEPs (the EPP has 265), no Commissioners in the political family (the EPP has 13), and no heads of government in the political family (the EPP has 13).

Liberals have 84 MEPs and 8 Commissioners and 4 heads of government in their political family.

Members of the ECR have been embroiled with controversy;

The Polish Law and Justice Party

- One of their MPs (Artur Gorski) is reported to have declared that the election of President Obama (a "Black Messiah" of the New Left) is; "an impending catastrophe, the end of the civilisation of the white man".

- They have described homosexuality as a "pathology" that is undermining the family.

- Konrad Szymanski MEP has said "We are opposed to homosexual marriages…that is how our MEPs will always vote."

- It banned gay marches in Poland, labelling them "sexually obscene".

- One member said; "Christianity was the root of European greatness, and if Europe is to be strong it must be Christian."

Michal Kaminski, Polish Law and Justice Party and Leader of ECR

- ECR leader, Michal Kaminski, has links and past membership (as a teenager) of neo-facist organisation the National Revival of Poland.

- He used derogatory language about homosexuals, akin to 'queers' and 'poofters'.

- He is an admirer of General Pinochet, and travelled to London in 1999 to present him with a 'gorget embossed with an image of the Virgin Mary'. He said 'this is the most important meeting of my whole life.'

- He denounced the Polish President for apologising for the wiping out of a Jewish village in 1941.

The Latvian National Independence Movement

- Sends representatives to the memorial ceremony celebrating the Latvian Waffen SS legion and the Arajs Kommando, one of the most notorious killing units of the holocaust.

The Czech Civic Democrats

- Founded on a premise that climate change is a "global myth".

Valdemar Tomasevski MEP voted for a Lithuanian law that has been described as a harsher, more wide-reaching version of Britain's Section 28.

• Lib Dems in the EP voted for a resolution denouncing the law.