Outrage at plan to bill Britain for Euro polls
ANGER erupted last night over plans to charge British taxpayers for a “private army” to protect MEPs and a publicity campaign for European elections that UK voters will not take part in.
Leaked spending estimates for the European Parliament revealed that the bills are being included in a new £1.7billion budget.
According to the document taxpayers will be expected to contribute £230million to the budget – more than twice the annual cost of running the House of Lords.
British expenses include more than £3.8million towards a £27million publicity campaign to urge people to vote in the 2019 elections.
UK voters are not due to take part in the poll because the country is scheduled to have left the EU by then.
Spiral
Other plans detail a private armed response team called Unit Protection to improve security around the parliament’s buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg.
The force of 46 security personnel will include a “close protection team” for parliament president Antonio Tajani.
Tory MP David Nuttall said: “My constituents will regard this as absolutely outrageous. We have voted to leave the EU and should not be contributing to any programme which will be of no benefit to the British public.”
Ukip MEP Jonathan Arnott, a member of the parliament’s budget committee, said: “The European parliament’s costs continue to spiral out of control, now including a private army.”
THE sooner Britain bids a final farewell to the European Union the better. But in the meantime the bills from Brussels keep dropping on the mat. Pricey security arrangements for MEPs are just one item, a unit of 46 bodyguards, with 12 of them assigned to protect the European Parliament’s president Antonio Tajani. It is being called a “private army” and this is clearly no exaggeration. Both the guards and their drivers will also have to make a monthly round-trip to Strasbourg which will cost a further million or so euros. The profligacy is never ending.
But this extravagant outlay is simply part of a £1.7billion spending binge as the EU tries to squeeze as much as possible out of British taxpayers while it still can. Our contribution is expected to be around £230million.
Another expense is what we will put towards a pro-EU publicity campaign (a “strong citizencentric message”) in advance of the 2019 European elections. Britons of course will not be taking part in these elections as we will have left the EU by then.
On one hand this vast expenditure is cause for fury. But it is also a useful indication of how much British taxpayers’ money is sucked into the bottomless pit that is the EU.
While any further expenditure is deeply regrettable it is a salutary reminder of the wisdom of more than 17 million British people when last June they voted to leave.