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Ludford slams Tory hypocrisy
April 6, 2001 12:00 AM
In a vote this week in the European Parliament, Tory MEPs unanimously backed a European Commission proposal for a six-year EU public health action plan. Even more surprisingly, the Tories unanimously voted to increase the multimillion pound EU budget on public health by a whopping 80 million Euros. The European Commission had asked for a total budget of 300 million Euros. The Tories actually outbid the Eurocrats for more taxpayers money by calling for a 380 million Euro budget.
Baroness Sarah Ludford, London's Lib Dem MEP who has long criticised EU programmes in the public health field as unnecessary, joined a majority of Lib Dem MEPs in withholding support in the final vote. Speaking from Strasbourg she said:
"In London, Hague starts to froth at the mouth at the mention of Europe. In Strasbourg, Hague's troops unanimously vote for an ill justified multi-million pound EU public health project. I hate to think how many hospital beds in London could have been funded from the extra millions the Tories voted to give away to the EU in this bureaucrats' dream scheme."
"London's Conservative MEPs should hang their heads in shame. There are only two possibilities: they either voted on something they didn't understand, or they are hypocrites.
"After this vote, no-one should pay any attention to Tory anti-EU bluster. On Europe, the Tories are all bark and no bite. Hague's hapless MEPs have shredded what little credibility was left of the Tory position on Europe."
The European Commission unveiled its proposal for a new strategy on public health on May 16th 2000. The European Parliament voted on its response (the Trakatellis Report) to the proposal on April 4th 2001.
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