Edward Mc Millan-Scott - Joining The Liberal Democrats

Joining The Liberal Democrats

Prior to the European Elections of June 1999, the British Conservative MEPs were allied members of the European People's Party (EPP). After the election, jointly with the then leader of the Conservative Party William Hague, McMillan-Scott negotiated the 'Malaga Agreement' which provided for a more detached relationship between the 36 British Conservative MEPs and the newly formed European People's Party–European Democrats (EPP-ED) coalition. This agreement remained in force until the 2009 elections when the Conservatives broke links with the EPP and formed part of the new European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.

Following his re-election to the European Parliament, McMillan-Scott left the EPP group and joined the new ECR group in accordance with the Conservative manifesto for the election. He attended the inaugural meeting of the new group, in Brussels on 24 June, where he expressed the view that he was uncomfortable with some members of the group having possible links with extremist groups.

In July 2009 he successfully stood for re-election as Vice-President of the European Parliament against the nominee of the new ECR group, Michał Kamiński a Polish MEP from the Law and Justice Party, after discovering Kaminski's past links to an extemist group in Poland. As a result the Conservative whip was withdrawn by Timothy Kirkhope, the leader of the British Conservative delegation. McMillan-Scott was then seated as a non-attached (Non-Inscrit) MEP in the European Parliament, though he remained a member of the British Conservative Party.

On 10 August 2009, William Hague wrote a letter to McMillan-Scott, described by the Conservative Home website as ‘humiliating’. On 15 September 2009, he was expelled from the Conservative Party without notice or reason. The doyen of the Yorkshire Post wrote a stinging attack entitled “Own goal as Tories force out a decent man”. McMillan-Scott appealed and issued a series of open letters to his constituents but, after his lawyers declared that he could not expect a fair hearing from the Conservative Party, he wrote to David Cameron on 12 March 2010 outlining his reasons for resigning his appeal. During a prolonged media war involving up to six Conservative Party press officers, the Party’s decision to leave the EU mainstream was almost universally condemned. The vilification of McMillan-Scott by the Conservative Party included the alteration of Wikipedia pages, in an attempt to "to airbrush the embarrassing past" of Michał Kamiński, chairman of the ECR. McMillan-Scott also stated, quite correctly, that his own article had also been edited in this way.An article published in The Observer newspaper reports edits to the articles made on 25 June 2009 from IP addresses originating in the United Kingdom House of Commons.

On 12 March 2010 McMillan-Scott joined the Liberal Democrats, as they provided a more suitable home with a focus on human rights and democracy, and an internationalist, rather than nationalist agenda. The Liberal Democrats are a member of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament, which McMillan-Scott formally joined on 17 May. He was nominated by the Liberal Democrat MEPs, and then the ALDE group, as a candidate for Vice-President in January 2012 and was then successfully re-elected.