General Election 2015: British MEPs may be in breach of EU rules over party campaigning
Ukip is likely to be at the heart of the 'ongoing' inquiry into the staff of 13 British MEPs from Ukip, Labour and the Conservative Party
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Your support makes all the difference.The EU says it will investigate suggestions that assistants employed by British MEPs may be breaching European rules governing their participation in the general election, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.
Ukip is likely to be at the heart of the “ongoing” inquiry into the staff of 13 British MEPs from Ukip, Labour and the Conservative Party, and this week officials at the European Parliament will warn parliamentarians that their staff may be breaking the rules that govern campaigning and standing for election.
Each of the 750 MEPs is allowed €270,000 (£200,000) a year to spend on staff in Brussels as well as so-called “local assistants” to work in their constituencies. These staff work as researchers and case workers, but there are strict rules preventing them from engaging in domestic politics.
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An investigation by The IoS, however, has discovered that 19 of Ukip’s local assistants are standing for election at Westminster and risk breaching EU rules which recommend that the staff of MEPs “standing for public office take leave or unpaid leave ... to avoid a conflict of interest”.
A European Parliament source said: “This is an ongoing case now. We will be writing to the MEPs concerned to point out that their assistants should take leave and any paid work undertaken must adhere to the mandate of their MEP.”
The European Parliament will also look at one Tory and one Labour MEP who have staff running for election; but another EU source said most attention would focus on the “unprecedented” number of MEPs’ staff from the anti-EU party standing for election in Westminster.
The IoS understands the inquiry will look at the offices of high-profile MEPs such as Bill Etheridge, standing for Ukip in the Midlands, and David Coburn, standing in Scotland.
The investigation comes after Martin Schulz, the parliament’s president, referred France’s far-right party National Front (FN) to Olaf, the anti-EU fraud office, over allegations that it defrauded the EU of €7.5m by allowing 20 MEP assistants to work on national matters. This case focused on the use of MEPs’ staff to subsidise the party’s national structure in Paris. However, the focus of the EU investigation into British MEPs is understood to be whether they may have breached rules by allowing staff to stand for office.
While there is no suggestion that Ukip, Labour or Conservative MEPs have engaged in any fraudulent behaviour for personal gain, sources close to President Schulz say that officials are considering referring the party to Olaf over a suspected breach in the rules.
Labour’s Richard Corbett MEP, who has campaigned for greater transparency in Brussels, said: “I am aware the European Parliament is in the process of setting up an investigation. The political paradox of Ukip using Brussels for domestic campaigning is obvious.”
Labour and several Ukip candidates and MEPs, at the request of The IoS, provided documentary evidence that they had taken unpaid leave or holiday – but more than a dozen Ukip candidates and a Tory MEP declined to do so.
A spokesman for Ukip said: “We have taken advice and are confident that we have obeyed the rules of the European Parliament at all times.”
Additional reporting by Siobhan Fenton
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