Feisty Federalists

A number of Conservative (for the benefit of our overseas readers, Conservatives are also referred to as Tory) MEPs are ready to defy orders from David Cameron, the boy-king of the Conservative Party, who made only two definite promises during his campaign for the leadership: one was not to restore the whip to Lord Archer and the other to take the Conservative MEPs out of the federalist European People’s Party a centre-right alliance.

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Struan Stevenson below, one of two Scottish Tory MEPs and a senior figure in the 28-member Tory group in The European Parliament said he expects around 20 of them will refuse to accept the order from London to leave the group.

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He said that if they left they would then have to sit with "a ragbag of fascists and outcasts", referring to the non-aligned group which includes Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the French National Front, Alessandra Mussolini, the neo-fascist Italian, and Robert Kilroy-Silk below, the British TV presenter; arguably a mixed bag indeed.

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Mr Stevenson questioned whether the autonomy of the Scottish Conservative Party allows him and John Purvis, the other Scottish MEP, to ignore the order. "It's not clear the leadership in England can crack the whip on us," he said.

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Mr Cameron's spokesman last night said that he remained determined to press ahead with his plan to pull Tories out of the European People's Party-European Democrats (EPP-ED) centre-right grouping, which is largely made up of Christian Democrats, and is the largest in the parliament with 268 members.

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"He made it very clear and he's got a mandate for the party for that," he said. MEPs hope William Hague, recently appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary, can resolve this impasse. In 1999, Mr Hague negotiated the deal which led to Tories joining the EPP-ED. Timothy Kirkhope, who was re-elected leader of the Tory MEP group last week, favours staying with the EPP-ED, adding: "The two players in this are William Hague and myself and that's the way I want to keep it."

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So clearly a significant number of Conservative MEPs are ready to defy orders from David Cameron to pull out of the European Parliament's centre-right alliance and join the non-aligned grouping. It emerged last night that the move could lead to them having the whip withdrawn in a confrontation that has become the first major problem to confront the newly anointed Tory leader.

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The editor of this blog has clashed with both the Scottish Tory MEPs during the euro election campaign in 2004.

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Crammed into a BBC TV studio in Aberdeen, Peter Troy left, the UKIP lead candidate in Scotland and Struan Stevenson were, as is the way of studio interviews, compelled to sit impolitely close to each other in front of an automatic camera and a remote interviewer in a tiny windowless room with very hot studio lights focused on the two reddening candidates. Peter Troy's account of the studio meeting to an author writing about the campaign a few month after the election proved amusing.

''For some twenty minutes we took it in turn to breathe and wipe the sweat from our brows. Being very British we were each profusely apologising to the other for our movements during the extended wait. The interview was to my novice support staff in the outer studio, amazing in its contrasting ferocity. Two hitherto polite and reserved waiting British Gentlemen suddenly in response to one 'live' question, locked into a violent verbal five minute conflict whilst sitting rigidly next to each with their eyes fixed onto a camera six feet in front of them. Both of us were desperately trying not to move out of shot whilst concentrating on punching deadly words where it would hurt the most.

''I hammered the issue of the EU causing the decline of Scotland's Fishing Industry, while my opponent maintained that under Conservative Policy Scottish fishing would be free of Brussels control and thus saved. I repeatedly asked him how this would be achieved, knowing full well that the Scottish Fisheries could only be returned to prosperity by a full withdrawal from the EU's Common Fisheries Policy. Stevenson was less than happy at being so tenuously pressed by both myself and the interviewer, his huge frame started to shift and was soon occupying more than his fair share of the studio bench seat.

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By the end of the interview I was repeating 'but how Mr Stephenson how, how?' whilst edging out of the corner of the shot, with my ear pressed against a filing cabinet. After the interview we retired for a very cordial cup of tea in the green room, to the amazement (and relief) of my support staff who were convinced they were about to witness an off camera physical punch up.''

Stephenson's fellow Scottish MEP, and also a committed Euro Federalist, John Purvis right, was so relieved not to have lost his seat to either UKIP or a Green Party candidate (as both MORI and U-Gov had predicted the previous week-end) that on the morning of the count he referred to Peter in a BBC Radio Scotland Interview as a Political extremist and nutter (gosh, as if!). Peter takes up the story:

''I had previously been told by the campaign media consultant, the indefatigable Clive Page, that the ultimate compliment from any live interviewing team is when they extend the interview time at the expense of the next scheduled item. I am grateful to Mr Purvis for providing me with the opportunity to earn that coveted compliment from BBC Scotland on that sunny Monday morning in June 2004.

I commenced my forceful reply to Mr Purvis' slur by thundering that if demanding self governance is an extreme political view ......and so on, via Churchill, Wallace, De Bruce and other historic notables; some 12 minutes later I concluded the interview. In the words of the editor of Sovereignty, the Glasgow based political monthly magazine, my diatribe was 'pure classic Troy and great fun'. I felt I was supported by wonderful political friends that day.''

Clearly both MEP's are staunch Euro Federalists. The new Tory leader is about to experience what a belligerent can of worms the two Scottish Tory MEPs are.

Cameron's spokesman confirmed last night that he remained determined to press ahead with his plan to pull Tories out of the European People's Party-European Democrats (EPP-ED).

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Err, both the Scottish MEP's love a fight - they are about to have one very big one. I wonder if the old Etionian is up to it ? This is going to be very intresting indeed.