UKIP's attendance record in the European Parliament is worse than that of their counterparts from the three major parties.
UKIP’s attendance record in the European Parliament is worse than that of their counterparts from the three major parties, according to data compiled by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
Happy to sign-in and collect their allowances, UKIP’s nine MEPs have missed around a third of the votes in the European Parliament between 2009 and October 2013. They have also missed almost all of the ‘reports amended’ sessions in which MEPs lay down amendments to legislation.
This was once again demonstrated on Wednesday, when Europe voted on whether its Parliament should continue meeting in both Brussels and Strasbourg, after a long campaign highlighting the fact that it costs European taxpayers €180m to meet in two locations rather than one.
Despite UKIP claiming to be standing up for Britain against European bureaucracy, however, only four UKIP MEPs out of nine bothered to turn up to vote on the measure at all. And those that did turn up abstained – on a measure that would have trimmed spending and cut waste!
And yet despite only four UKIP MEPs turning up to vote on the ‘second seat’ rule on Wednesday, six UKIP MEPs signed in to claim their daily spending allowance.
In other words, some UKIP MEPs signed in and couldn’t even be bothered to abstain!
66 Responses to “UKIP MEPs laziest in Europe”
Tom
UKIP’s Stuart Agnew comments “Women don’t have the ambition to get to the top, something gets in the way. It’s called a baby,” remarks that lead to a flurry of attempted blue-card interventions. – Tuesday evening debate http://www.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/europe-24998244
newmanuk
I’m sorry but UKIP EU ‘parliament’ speeches on youtube are gold and worth every penny in my opinion. Also UKIP vote against ALL new laws from the EU as they are un constitutional since the EU has now legal or democratic mandate. It is true to say that UKIP MEP’s miss occasional votes on ‘amendments’ but what’s the point on voting on an amendments to a new law if you are going to vote against the law anyway?
newmanuk
What’s wrong with using ‘EU money’ (our money) to promote the cause of UKIP when most people in the UK don’t want the EU.
slightlypeedoff
The point of UKIP, is to infiltrate the European Union and boycott / provide opposition to it. Does your author understand this? That is why people who are opposed to our continued EU membership and are given no chance to vote on the matter by the Lib/Lab/Con vote for UKIP. The French, Dutch and Irish all voted to reject the EU and were either sent away to vote the correct way or ignored. Some respect for democracy you lefties have eh?
TJ
Nice try, but most people in the UK don’t vote UKIP. And even if they did, it’s entirely inappropriate for politicians to spend money claimed through expenses on promoting their party. (I don’t think that that’s what’s happened in this case, though – they seem to be spending it on themselves personally).