‘HYPOCRITE’ SLUR AT JACK STRAW

Jack Straw was accused of hypocrisy yesterday

Thursday February 23,2012

By Martyn Brown Political Correspondent

 Have your say(10)

EX-LABOUR frontbencher Jack Straw was accused of hypocrisy yesterday after he called for the European Parliament to be scrapped.

The senior MP, both Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary under the last Labour government, hit out at the growing “democratic deficit” in the European Union.

He proposed replacing the directly-elected European Parliament – that sits in both Brussels and Strasbourg – with a new assembly made up of MPs from ­parliaments in member states. But fellow politicians questioned why Mr Straw did not have those views while his party was in Government for 13 years.

The comments, made in a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank, were also being seen as indicating a shift in attitude towards the EU among some senior frontbenchers.

Mr Straw said: “I am now clear that there is a major democratic deficit within the EU. And it is absolutely ­certain, in my judgment, that the mechanism that was ­established 30 years ago to fill this gap of the democratic deficit, which was a directly elected European parliament, has not worked and, in my judgment, cannot work in that form.”

It’s a shame that Mr Straw spent years failing to realise that the parliament is useless

Ukip leader Nigel Farage

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: “It’s a shame that Mr Straw spent years failing to realise that the parliament is useless.”

A YouGov poll yesterday revealed just eight per cent of UK voters believe their “voice counts in the EU”.