As one of your Conservative MEPs, I go to Brussels to speak up for British interests and the people of the East of England. I didn't become an MEP in order to promote the EU. I want us to govern our own country. I want the people of the East of England to get the best possible deal out of the EU, and so I work closely with local businesses, farmers, fishermen and organisations like the Federation of Small Businesses and the Thoroughbred Breeding Association.

 

I recently organised a conference for businesses in the East of England entitled: "What can we do for your business in 2010?" The conference outlined what a Conservative government would do to help British businesses in these difficult times, as well as the opportunities of EU funding and grants (which is nothing more than British tax-payers' money recycled through Brussels) available to local businesses. Click here for more information.

 

A former Brigadier in the British Army, I sit on both the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Security and Defence Subcommittee in the European Parliament. I steadfastly stick up for British interests and oppose EU meddling in the fields of foreign affairs and defence. As well as continuing my role as Security and Defence spokesman for the Conservatives, I am now responsible for this area of policy for our new group, the European Conservatives and Reformists.

 

In addition to these responsibilities, I am a member of the Transport Committee. I was therefore able to have direct influence on the decision to award the Nuneaton-Felixstowe rail-link project a large amount of EU-funding. This is something for which I have been campaigning for many years.

 

In other news, I am delighted that we recently formed a new political group in the European Parliament, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). I am proud to have been spearheading the Brussels end of the project, which brings together mainstream, centre-right parties of government from all over Europe in an unprecedented opposition grouping. Please click here to read an article which, although written nearly four years ago, sets out the reasons why the Conservatives are right to have taken this step. I also helped draft the principles of the Prague Declaration on which the ECR is founded.

 

I look foward to hearing your views.

 

Addressing Cambridge Scholars	Fighting for our fishermen
Supporting local troops in Afghanistan	Strengthening British Links with Israel
Energy security and the East of England	Fighting for Democracy in Zimbabwe