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”
newmanuk
The EU has no democratic mandate and is therefore illegal.
If however it did you would have a valid argument. UKIP MEP’s job and the reason why they have been elected is to get the UK out of the EU by any means, so their priority is not to make the place work but to promote the UKIP cause. In very much the same way the SNP MP’s do in Westminster (i.e. to leave Westminster).
slightlypeedoff
I bet Nigel Farage works ten times harder than Millipede, Clugg or Conman. He campaigns tirelessly up and down the country at local meetings (where you wouldn’t see the ruling elite that you vote for) and he in fact couldn’t make the recent North East conference because he is in hospital with his back problems. All that on top of going to Brussels and Strasbourg to provide legitimate, necessary and vital opposition to the EU unelected dictators. He has hardly had a holiday aside from a few days off, that is in contrast to Clegg and Camerons several official holidays. Wake up and smell the coffee you lot, the days of making up BS and fooling anybody are long gone. 🙂
slightlypeedoff
Not ‘most’ but now more and more 20-26% DO vote UKIP. And 82% want to leave the EU if given a referendum. Which is why the government won’t give us a referendum and why Cameron offered a one AFTER the 2015 General Election, by which time Labour will get in and not offer one. (LibLabCon are the same New World Order puppets) About time you dumb, naive Lefties woke up is it not?
TJ
I’m all for a referendum. It would be a disaster for Britain if we left, though. The ridiculous Dad’s Army that is UKIP is really nothing more than a last hurrar for embittered conservatives too stupid to realise that Britain isn’t a major world power any more, and benefits greatly from EU membership. No, I’m confident that the British people will be sensible enough to reject UKIP and their outdated politics if a referendum were called.
TJ
It’s not illegal. What law says that it’s illegal? And our elected politicians took us into Europe, so therefore it is democratic. If the British people were so averse to EU membership then we would have left a long time ago, because we would have voted for a party that would promise to take us out.