Britain’s MEPs were called to a meeting at the EU Parliament this evening to discuss the ending of their mandates at the end of the month, how redundancies of both MEPs and staff will work, and how they need to go about shutting down their offices. Things were clearly in high spirits as Guido is informed Lib Dem and Labour MEPs went in determined to secure their pension rights. On the other hand, Farage has promised to not take a penny of his golden goodbye…
One Labour MEP desperately tried to justify why she deserved her full pension entitlement because she’s “been working really hard creating the biggest pro-EU movement in the UK”. Guido hears this caused laughter from all sides, including Brussels officials who spotted her movement clearly hadn’t worked…
Richard Corbett kept asking about whether he’d be able to get a ’widower’s pension’ and Caroline Voaden came out with the line “It shows just how unfair the system is” when she realised she won’t be getting her full pension. One source reports they think they spotted a couple of her colleagues in tears…
Unsurprisingly the Lib Dems were seething, with one telling Brexit Party MEP June Mummery to “shut up” when she tried talking, to which she fired back “shut yer big gob you”. One MEP tells Guido next time they’re definitely bringing popcorn…
The Liberal Democrat PPC for Sarah Wollaston’s Totnes constituency has made a less than helpful intervention on local radio, claiming no decision has been made over who will stand for the seat in an upcoming general election. Awkward…
Caroline Voaden, the understandably miffed original candidate, is currently a Lib Dem MEP for the South West. She told BBC Radio Devon that “things are very fluid” and “when the election will be… may have some colouring on who stands.”
“We can only have one candidate for Totnes. At some point a decision will be made about whether I fight the seat for Totnes or whether Sarah does, and that is a decision that the party will make, and it has not been made yet.”
Who knows, by that point Wollaston might have defected to yet another different party…
