by Kate Holman
A small group of ardent right-wingers got together in the upstairs room of a bar in Brussels last week to launch a new European branch of the campaign group the Freedom Association – further underlining the deep divide within the Conservative Party over Europe.
The Freedom Association’s honorary chairman, Tory MEP Roger Helmer, presided over the meeting. The following morning, he resigned from David Cameron’s European Parliament frontbench team, together with his hardline Eurosceptic colleague Daniel Hannan, in protest at Mr Cameron’s decision not to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
The new “informal” TFA branch sees itself as a focus for British Eurosceptics in Brussels, pushing for a change in Conservative policy – “where the Tory Party meets UKIP”, as one member put it.
“There are a huge number of disgruntled Tories”, said TFA director Simon Richards. “There’s massive anger about Cameron’sdecision.”
The Freedom Association, which lays claim to 4,000 members, is about to relaunch its three-year-old “Better off Out” campaign against Britain’s EU membership and boasts that it has the support of a large number of prospective Tory candidates.
Guest speaker at the launch was Michal Kaminski, the controversial Polish MEP and leader of the Tories’ new anti-federalist bloc in the European Parliament, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group. “We wanted to give him a platform as we feel he’s had a lot of adverse publicity in the UK”, said Mr Richards.
Mr Kaminski is regarded with suspicion by many, due to his homophobic, far-right past. “I am not an anti-Semite, and I am not a neo-Nazi”, he told the gathering, accusing the Labour Party in Britain of launching a campaign against him out of “desperation”.
Mr Helmer welcomed the Polish Law and Justice party MEP enthusiastically. He said: “British Conservatives are extremely proud to have him as our leader.”
But not all Freedom Association supporters at the meeting were so keen. “I’m quite right-of-centre, but this is beyond the pale”, said one longstanding member, warning that the Tories’ affiliations in the EP could put at risk relations between a future Conservative government and the United States administration.
Mr Cameron’s embarrassment over the referendum debacle, coupled with the success of UKIP and the British National Party in this year’s European elections, has emboldened dissident Tories in Europe to take a more aggressive anti-EU stance. Reports in Brussels refer to a “right-wing coup” which led to Mr Hannan and fellow Eurosceptic MEP Geoffrey van Orden seizing the leadership of the new pan-European Conservative party and a think-tank on EU reform.
The Freedom Association also sees an opportunity to mobilise new recruits. The association, which was founded in 1975 by Norris and Ross McWhirter and businessman John Gouriet, has had a low profile in recent years. But it used to be notorious for its maverick anti-trade union activities, especially during the Grunwick dispute.
It took a fiercely anti-republican stand on the conflict in Northern Ireland, which led to Ross McWhirter’s assassination by the IRA. The association also encourages its “Freedom Fighters” – its “action branch” – to take part in marches, demonstrations and protests.
