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Please don't let me elect the new Tory leader

Daily Telegraph - Thursday 19th May 2005


Sir

The debate is hotting up over the election of the new Tory leader (letter, May 17), and various groups - the Lords, councillors, constituency chairmen - are staking claims for special status. One group the party will be hearing from is the British Conservative MEPs in Brussels, of whom I am one.

The party should not give the MEPs any special status in the leadership election. In all three major parties, the MEPs are a self-selecting and unrepresentative group, because the sort of people who offer themselves as candidates for the euro-election are, for the most part, those who are more interested in, and more positive about, the EU project.

In this sense, the Tory MEPs are unrepresentative of the party's views on the greatest issue of our generation. They must not be allowed to skew the result.

Yours faithfully,

Roger Helmer MEP (Con, E Midlands)
Lutterworth, Lincs