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European Affairs

Of course, I support my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition in his quest to take us out of the EPP, but UK membership of the EU is far more important than my party’s membership of the EPP. If I had a large multinational business I might be able to shoulder some of the regulatory burden, but the effects on a small business in Shipley can be crippling. If anyone wants the truth about the EU and the much hailed single market, they should not ask me and they should not ask a British politician. They should go straight to the horse’s mouth and ask the European Commission. For our friends in the Commission, the EU is unashamedly a political project. For them, unlike our Government, its economic failings do not take away from the validity of the project.