More on UKIP to EUKIP

Gerard Batten MEP,
UK Independence Party,
PO Box 2409,
Ilford,
IG1 8ES.

020 7403 7174

22nd July 2011

Steve Crowther,
Chairman,
UK Independence Party.

Dear Steve,

Open Letter: European Political Parties

On 11th July you gave me a piece of paper asking me to ‘abide by the result of the members’ ballot’ on this subject. I understand that if I sign this then should the members vote ‘Yes’ to the question posed I will be ‘required’ to join a European political party of the NEC’s choosing.

Fist of all let me say that I have only ever joined one political party in my life: the Anti-Federalist League in 1992 which changed its name to the UK Independence Party in 1993. I opposed Britain’s membership of the EU prior to 1972 and I voted No in the 1975 referendum. The only policy towards the EU that I am interested in is that of withdrawal – which has to be unconditional in my view since if there are any conditions they will be set by the EU not Britain.

I have to decline to sign the piece of paper you gave me. I am making this an open letter to you as you have written in Independence magazine telling the members that you have asked the MEPs to abide by the decision whether it is ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, and so I think they therefore have a right to know why I am not signing it.

My reasons are as follows:

1.If and when there is a European Political Party which at the very least encompasses the policy of unilateral national withdrawal from the EU in its Constitution or Statute I will give serious consideration to joining it. However no such part yet exists and it is a hypothetical question.

2.No individual can be ‘required’ to join a political party – especially one that doesn’t exist. That proposition is, with all due respect, a nonsense.

3.Even if a suitable party existed then there is the issue of who else might be admitted as members? Such a party’s membership would be drawn from across Europe and UKIP cannot be expected to control it. It might admit as members those we did not, collectively or as individuals, wish to be associated with. Until we know the basis of membership from its statute we cannot make a decision; and even if we joined we might subsequently have to leave if people we did not approve of were allowed in.

4.Who is to be on the pay-roll of the hypothetical party? Who it employs is of equal importance to who its members are. I can think of a number of people whose financial benefit I wouldn’t want to indirectly contribute to by being a member of a European Political Party of which they were an employee.

5.The UKIP NEC may well eventually approve of a particular political party but the decision to join it must be an individual decision of belief and conscience. If the membership do vote ‘Yes’ then will the refusal of an MEP to join a EPP elicit sanctions of some kind? If so, then this should have been made plain to the members so that they can make a properly informed decision. It has not.

As I said, I will be pleased to consider membership of an actual European Political Party when one exists with a Statute encompassing withdrawal that we can consider. I hope that the NEC will realise that the issue of requiring MEPs to abide by the decision of the members on this issue has not been properly thought out and will respect my position.

Yours sincerely,

Gerard Batten MEP