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{{short description|British politician}} | |||
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{{Infobox MEP | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}} | |||
| image = <!-- only free-content images are allowed for depicting living people - see ] --> | | |||
{{Infobox officeholder | |||
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| image = McMillan-Scott, Edward-9592.jpg | ||
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| honorific-suffix =] | |||
| honorific-prefix = | |||
| party = Independent | |||
| name = Edward McMillan-Scott | |||
| constituency_MP = ] | |||
| party = Non-party (2019–present) <br/> ] (2010–2019) <br/> ] (2009–2010) <br />] (1967–2009) | |||
| term_start = ] ] | |||
| office = ] | |||
| term_end = | |||
| term_start = 17 January 2012 | |||
| parliament = European | |||
| term_end = 1 July 2014 | |||
| predecessor = ] | |||
| successor = ] | |||
| president = ] | |||
| office1 = ] | |||
| term_start1 = 14 July 2009 | |||
| term_end1 = 17 January 2012 | |||
| predecessor1 = ] | |||
| successor1 = ] | |||
| president1 = ] | |||
| office2 = ] | |||
| term_start2 = 30 July 2004 | |||
| term_end2 = 14 July 2009 | |||
| successor2 = ] | |||
| president2 = ]<br />] | |||
| office3 = ] | |||
| term_start3 = 16 September 1997 | |||
| term_end3 = 14 December 2001 | |||
| predecessor3 = ] | |||
| successor3 = ] | |||
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|titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes | |||
| office = ]<br />for ] | |||
| term_start = 10 June 1999 | |||
| term_end = 2 July 2014 | |||
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| predecessor = | | predecessor = ''Constituency established'' | ||
| successor = | | successor = ] | ||
| office1 = ]<br />for ] | |||
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1949|8|15|df=y}} | |||
| term_start1 = 9 June 1994 | |||
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| term_end1 = 10 June 1999 | |||
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| predecessor1 = ''Constituency established'' | |||
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| nationality = ] | |||
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| term_start2 = 14 June 1984 | |||
| relations = | |||
| term_end2 = 9 June 1994 | |||
| children = | |||
| predecessor2 = ''Constituency established'' | |||
| residence = | |||
| successor2 = ''Constituency abolished'' | |||
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{{Collapsed infobox section end}} | |||
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}} | }} | ||
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1949|8|15|df=y}} | |||
'''Edward McMillan-Scott''' was born in Cambridge in 1949. He is a ] for the ] and one of the ]. He was elected for the ] in the ]. He describes himself as "internationalist pro-European Catholic" | |||
| birth_place = ], ], England | |||
| death_date = | |||
| death_place = | |||
| nationality = British | |||
| spouse = Henrietta McMillan-Scott | |||
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}} | |||
'''Edward McMillan-Scott''' (born in Cambridge on 15 August 1949) is a British politician. He was a pro-EU ] (MEP) for ] and ] from 1984 until 2014. He was the last and one of the longest-serving UK Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament 2004–2014, holding its Human Rights and Democracy portfolio throughout. In 2009, he renounced a peerage (life membership of the House of Lords) in protest at UK premier David Cameron's withdrawal from the Centrist EPP Group. After losing his seat as an MEP he became active in campaigning against Brexit and coordinates the . | |||
McMillan-Scott was elected an honorary Board member of the European Parliament's 700-member Former Members Association in 2014 and has been re-elected biannually since. In 2014 he was also elected an honorary Patron at its AGM by the European Movement UK, which he first joined aged 23 in 1973. | |||
McMillan-Scott is a lifelong pro-European.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.libdemvoice.org/edward-mcmillanscott-mep-writes-in-europe-40-years-on-what-next-32667.html |title=Edward McMillan-Scott MEP writes… In Europe 40 years on: what next? |publisher=Libdemvoice.org |date=16 January 2013 |access-date=27 January 2014}}</ref> Following ]'s decision to withdraw the Conservative MEPs from the centre-right ] in order to form the ], McMillan-Scott objected. When the composition of Cameron's new ECR group was announced after the European elections of 2009, McMillan-Scott protested and left.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/5626057/Tory-MEP-voices-real-concern-over-new-European-grouping.html|title=Tory MEP voices 'real concern' over new European grouping |date=25 June 2009|newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=28 July 2014|first=Martin|last=Banks}}</ref> The new group was described by Liberal Democrat leader ] as "a bunch of nutters, homophobes, anti-Semites and ]".<ref>{{cite news|first=Michael |last=White |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/apr/22/tv-leaders-debate-nick-clegg |title=Leaders' TV debate: Nick Clegg, Gordon Brown and David Cameron rated | Politics |work=The Guardian |date= 22 April 2010|access-date=21 January 2014 |location=London}}</ref> | |||
In July 2009 McMillan-Scott successfully stood as the first-ever Independent vice-president of the European Parliament against the nominee of the ECR Group, Polish MEP ], criticising Kamiński's past links to extremism, confirmed inter alia by the ''Daily Telegraph''.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk">{{cite news|last=Waterfield |first=Bruno |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/5837378/Tory-MEPs-led-by-Pole-with-extremist-past.html |title=Tory MEPs 'led by Pole with extremist past' |publisher=Telegraph |date=15 July 2009 |access-date=21 January 2014 |location=London}}</ref> Shortly before this, McMillan-Scott was telephoned by then UK premier David Cameron, who offered him a peerage (membership of the House of Lords) the usual reward for leaders of the Conservative group of MEPs (Henry Plumb, Christopher Prout, Timothy Kirkhope ] ) but McMillan-Scott declined. | |||
In 1992, McMillan-Scott founded the EU's Instrument for Human Rights and Democracy (EIDHR) - now the EU's Global Europe Human Rights & Democracy Programme,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_6695 |title=Global Europe Human Rights & Democracy Programme|access-date=27 April 2022}}</ref> which remain's the world's largest dedicated programme with an annual budget of Euro 1.5 billion. | |||
In March 2010, he joined the ] with whom he had usually worked closely on democracy and human rights issues. In May 2010 he became a member of the ] (ALDE) in the European Parliament.<ref name="Joins Lib-Dems">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8564914.stm|title=Ex-Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott joins Lib Dems |date=12 March 2010|work=BBC News|publisher=BBC|access-date=12 March 2010}}</ref> He then sat as ALDE Vice-President of the European Parliament.<ref>{{cite book|title=The faces of the European Parliament 2009–2011|date=April 2010|publisher=Publications Office of the European Union|isbn=978-92-823-3043-2}}</ref> In January 2012, he was re-elected as vice-president for the fourth time.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20120117IPR35542/html/14-Vice-Presidents-and-5-Quaestors-elected|title=14 Vice-Presidents and 5 Quaestors of the European Parliament elected|date=18 January 2012|publisher=European Parliament|access-date=31 January 2012}}</ref> He once again received the portfolio for Democracy and Human Rights as well as additionally gaining the ] Network, which underpins the parliament's annual prize for freedom of expression and responsibility for transatlantic relations. | |||
Since 2017 McMillan-Scott has coordinated a forum of operational pro-European organisations known as ''Where Next for Brexit?''<ref>{{cite news |title='It's not a done deal': inside the battle to stop Brexit |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/apr/28/brexit-not-a-done-deal-battle-to-stay-in-eu-second-referendum |access-date=18 November 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=28 April 2018}}</ref> now renamed ''PRO EU FORUM UK.'' This was the stakeholder forum for the Grassroots Coordinating Group<ref>{{cite news|date=1 February 2018|title=Groups opposed to hard Brexit join forces under Chuka Umunna|newspaper=The Guardian|url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/01/groups-opposed-to-hard-brexit-join-forces-under-chuka-umunna|access-date=25 November 2020}}</ref> set up by former MPs ] and ] to argue for a second referendum on Brexit and is closely linked to the European Movement. McMillan-Scott and colleagues raised over £2 million for the People's Vote campaign, launched in April 2018 to campaign for a second referendum on Brexit. | |||
By 2019 the People's Vote campaign was organising massive demonstrations, culminating in a million-strong rally at Westminster in October 2019. That same weekend, the ten DUP (Northern Irish) MPs decided to back the campaign, thereby creating a parliamentary majority. At this point Roland Rudd, a financial PR and chair of Open Britain - just one of several organisations under the People's Vote umbrella - crashed the campaign by sacking 40 staff, changing the locks at People's Vote's Millbank offices and seizing its financial and data assets, using a financial vehicle he had secretly set up that summer. Rudd has never explained his motive, although within days he was one of only 30 guests at the wedding of Boris Johnson, with whom he had been at Eton: another guest was their schoolmate Hugo Dixon, former chair of In Facts, a website about Brexit. | |||
As a supporter of greater European Union federal integaration, McMillan-Scott was critical of the British Conservatives' plan of leaving ] grouping in the European Parliament to form a new anti-federalist parliamentary group after the ], the ] (ECR). | |||
==Early life== | |||
In July 2009 he successfully stood for re-election as Vice-President of the European Parliament against the official candidate of his grouping and consequently he was expelled from the British Conservative delegation and from the ECR group. Consequently he is now seated as a non-attached (]) MEP in the European Parliament. | |||
McMillan-Scott was born 15 August 1949 in ], England,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch/view.do?country=GB&partNumber=1&zone=Yorkshire+and+the+Humber&language=EN&id=1405|title=MEP profile – Edward McMILLAN-SCOTT|publisher=European Parliament|accessdate=30 July 2009|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923062924/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch/view.do?country=GB&partNumber=1&zone=Yorkshire+and+the+Humber&language=EN&id=1405|archivedate=23 September 2009}}</ref><ref name="Doncaster"/> one of seven children of the late Walter, an architect, and the late Elisabeth McMillan-Scott, née Hudson. He was educated privately by ].<ref name="Profile">{{cite web|url=http://emcmillanscott.com/7.html|title=Profile of Edward McMillan-Scott|publisher=Edward McMillan-Scott|access-date=30 July 2009|archive-date=9 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160809162314/http://emcmillanscott.com/7.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He worked across the continent, the USSR and Africa as a tour director for a US company for several years. He speaks French, Italian, some German and Spanish. From 1973 he worked in public affairs and in 1982 set up his own Whitehall consultancy. His clients included the Falkland Islands Government. He became a member of the ] in 1967<ref name="Doncaster"/><ref name="Profile"/> and joined the ] in 1973. He was one of the joint regional coordinators for the ]. | |||
==European Parliament== | ==European Parliament== | ||
McMillan-Scott was the MEP for ] from 1984 to 1994, MEP for ] from 1994 to 1999, and MEP for ] from 1999 onwards. Before the 2009 elections, he signed the pledge to support a new anti-federalist group in the new parliament. However, after the election, in July 2009, he stood against his own group as an independent candidate for Vice-President of the parliament. As a result, the Conservative Party withdrew the whip from him. | |||
McMillan-Scott was elected as the MEP for ] from 1984 to 1994,<ref name="Elections1">{{cite web|url=http://www.election.demon.co.uk/epe2.html|title=Elections to the European Parliament 1979–99 – Constituencies in England part 2 (Merseyside East – Z) |work=United Kingdom Election Results|publisher=David Boothroyd|access-date=30 July 2009}}</ref> then MEP for ] from 1994 to 1999,<ref name="Elections1"/> and an MEP for ] from 1999 until 2014.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu-regions/E15000003|title=Yorkshire and the Humber|access-date=25 May 2014|newspaper=BBC News|date=25 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/1999/1999-election-results#yorkshirehumber|title=1999 Election Results – Yorkshire and Humber|publisher=UK Office of the European Parliament|access-date=30 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927092722/http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/1999/1999-election-results#yorkshirehumber|archive-date=27 September 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/2004/2004-election-results#yorkshirehumber|title=2004 Election Results – Yorkshire and Humber|publisher=UK Office of the European Parliament|access-date=30 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090708161921/http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/2004/2004-election-results#yorkshirehumber|archive-date=8 July 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/european-elections/results-2009-european-elections-uk#yorkshirehumber|title=Results of 2009 European elections in the UK|publisher=UK Office of the European Parliament|access-date=30 July 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090607204700/http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/european-elections/results-2009-european-elections-uk#yorkshirehumber|archive-date=7 June 2009}}</ref> | |||
===Roles and Responsibilities=== | |||
McMillan-Scott was leader of the Conservative MEPs between 1997 and 2001. On ] ] he was elected fourth of the 14 ]. He was re-elected a Vice-President in 2007. McMillan-Scott's responsibilities as Vice-President include relations with national EU parliaments and the ], which brings together 240 MPs from ], ] and the Middle East. | |||
===Roles and responsibilities=== | |||
A long term opponent of Israeli actions in Palestine he was elected chairman of the European Parliament's largest-ever ] missions, 30 MEPs, to Palestine in January 2005 and January 2006 for the presidential and parliamentary elections respectively. | |||
] | |||
McMillan-Scott was leader of the British Conservative MEPs between September 1997 and December 2001, and attended the Shadow Cabinet on European issues.<ref name="Doncaster"/> On 23 July 2004 he was elected fourth of the 14 ].<ref name="Doncaster">{{cite web|url=http://www.doncasterconservatives.org.uk/index.php?sectionid=2&pagenumber=22|title=Edward McMillan-Scott|publisher=Doncaster Conservatives|access-date=30 July 2009}}{{Dead link|date=November 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="VP">{{cite web|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?language=EN&type=IM-PRESS&reference=20070109BKG01804#title3|title=Election of the President of the European Parliament|date=5 December 2007|publisher=European Parliament|access-date=30 July 2009}}</ref> He was re-elected a vice-president in 2007, 2009 and 2012.<ref name="VP"/> McMillan-Scott's special responsibilities as vice-president included relations with national EU parliaments<ref name="Doncaster"/> and the ],<ref name="EMPA">{{cite web|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/empa/epdelegation/ep_members_en.htm|title=EP Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly|date=1 September 2008|publisher=European Parliament|access-date=28 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081231165658/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/empa/epdelegation/ep_members_en.htm|archive-date=31 December 2008}}</ref> which brings together 280 MPs from ], North Africa and the Middle East.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/empa/assembly/default_en.htm |title=The Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) |date=18 May 2009 |publisher=European Parliament |access-date=30 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226202755/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/empa/assembly/default_en.htm |archive-date=26 February 2009 }}</ref> After re-election as vice-president in 2009, his responsibilities as vice-president were Democracy and Human Rights, relations with national parliaments, and chairing the European Parliament's Audit Panel.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} After re-election in 2012 he continued with the democracy and human rights portfolio and additionally the Sakharov Prize Network and transatlantic relations. | |||
He founded the regular forum between the Human Rights and Democracy Network, more than 40 Brussels-based NGOs, and the European Parliament, whose aim is to maximise EU attention to these topics. | |||
He is an honorary life member of the ].<ref>, accessed 17 July 2009</ref> | |||
He sat on the Supervisory Group which oversees all the European Parliament's democracy and human rights activities, including election observation. He has participated in numerous such missions since 1990. He was elected chairman of the European Parliament's largest-ever ] missions, 30 MEPs, to the ] in January 2005 and January 2006. These observers monitored the ]'s ] and ] elections.<ref name="Doncaster"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.violethudson.com/democracy.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202351/http://www.violethudson.com/democracy.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 March 2016|title=Edward chairs two largest Palestine MEP poll missions|publisher=Edward McMillan-Scott|access-date=31 July 2009}}</ref> | |||
===Campaigning=== | |||
McMillan-Scott was the founder of the ] which was an initiative originally aimed at the transformation of the ex-Soviet bloc and which he is now directing towards the reforming ] and authoritarian countries such as China, Cuba and Russia. He no longer runs the project. | |||
==Awards and prizes== | |||
He campaigns for improved children's rights across the EU and has dealt with a number of cross-frontier ] cases. He is currently{{when}} campaigning for an EU-wide missing child alert with Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of missing ]. A majority of MEPs supported a resolution to this effect, sponsored in the summer of 2008 by McMillan-Scott. In the USA, the Department of Justice's ] has recovered 400 abducted children since 2003, 80% within the crucial first 72 hours. France has an identical system but other countries, including the UK, rely on a patchwork of volunteers and charities. | |||
===Medal of Honour=== | |||
His 'Golden Fleece' campaign against fraud and malpractice in the Costa villa and ] market won wide support. He is currently{{when}} campaigning for more secure ] in the EU's neighbourhood, as buyers move into the Balkans, Turkey and North Africa, where the legal framework is insecure. | |||
McMillan-Scott was presented in September 2013 with the Medal of Honour<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eiuc.org/news-detail/items/id-2292013-signature-of-letter-of-exchange-with-council-of-europe-and-awarding-of-eiuc-medal-of-honour-to-ep-vice-president-copi.html |title=22/9/2013: EIUC awards EIUC Medal of Honour to EP Vice-President and signs Letter of Exchange with the Council of Europe |publisher=EIUC |access-date=21 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226194700/http://www.eiuc.org/news-detail/items/id-2292013-signature-of-letter-of-exchange-with-council-of-europe-and-awarding-of-eiuc-medal-of-honour-to-ep-vice-president-copi.html |archive-date=26 February 2014 }}</ref> by the Venice-based European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation, comprising 41 universities, "in recognition of his lasting efforts in the promotion and protection of human rights". Previous winners are Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Manfred Nowak, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. | |||
===Outstanding Contribution=== | |||
===Opposition to party re-grouping and expulsion=== | |||
McMillan-Scott won the top award, for "Outstanding Contribution" in the 2012 MEP Awards<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/mep-awards-2012-winners-announced/#.UGxWzpjMh8E |title=MEP awards 2012 winners announced |publisher=theparliament.com |date=26 September 2012 |access-date=21 January 2014}}</ref> presented by the ], Brussels sister publication of Westminster's ''House'' magazine. The citation referred to his achievements in democracy and human rights, especially his active involvement in the Arab Spring, as well as his leadership of the ] campaign to end MEPs' monthly trek from their base in Brussels to their official "seat" in Strasbourg. | |||
As a supporter of further European integration McMillan-Scott was opposed to ]'s decision to leave the centre-right ] group. Despite this he did sign David Cameron's pledge to join a new anti federalist group but, once elected, he attacked the group and then claimed the new ] group was "a pure political adventure" because of what he claims to be the membership of right-wing populist and extremist parties.<ref> Daily Telegraph, ]</ref> | |||
==Campaigning== | |||
On 14 July 2009, McMillan-Scott stood as an independent against his own group's officially nominated candidate for Vice-President of the European Parliament, ], and McMillan-Scott won. McMillan-Scott was then immediately expelled from the ECR group. Commenting after his re-election as Vice-President, McMillan-Scott, the first ever to to break the group system of nominations, stated: ''"Rather than withdrawing the whip, David Cameron should be pleased that a Tory is still at the top in Europe. ... The public want to see transparency and real democracy among their parliamentarians, in Brussels or Westminster ... Standing as an independent candidate - and for the values of democracy and human rights which I have worked through the EU to promote worldwide - I have made a start."''<ref>, EurActiv.com, 15 July 2009</ref> | |||
===Democracy and human rights=== | |||
After Polish ECR MEP ]'s failure to be elected as a vice-president, the Poles within the ECR Group were angered that the deal brokered by British Conservative leader Timothy Kirkhope had been compromised and threatened to leave the group - which would bring it close to collapse (without the Poles, it would consist of MEPs from seven countries which is the minumum requirement for a group). Kirkhope stood aside to allow Kamiński to become Group President. Michal Kaminski is now the first group leader from a former communist country. | |||
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, McMillan-Scott founded the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR),<ref>{{cite web |date=17 February 2012 |title=European Instrument for Democracy & Human Rights (EIDHR) |url=https://europa.rs/eu-assistance-to-serbia/eidhr/?lang=en |access-date=21 January 2014 |publisher=Ec.europa.eu}}</ref> to facilitate the development of democracy and civil society in the ex-Soviet bloc countries, and which is now directed towards the reforming ] and countries resisting reform such as China, Cuba and Russia.<ref name="Profile"/> The instrument makes €1.5 billion every seven years available to those promoting human rights and democracy, often without the applicant's host country consent. | |||
As a frequent visitor to countries of the former Soviet Bloc and its satellites after his election in 1984, where he had contacts with dissidents, McMillan-Scott was arrested and fined in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in 1972 for visiting former religious institutions while working as a tour guide. He was present during the October 1993 attempted coup d'état by old guard communists against ] and was the only outside politician to speak at ]'s July 2006 "Other Russia" rally. | |||
Unhappy at being left in the non-inscrit 'grouping', it was speculated that McMillan-Scott might join the EPP group as an independent MEP.<ref>, ], 14 July 2009</ref> | |||
Since then he visited Russia frequently to engage with the leaders of the mounting anti-Putin movement and initiated a range of debates, resolutions, conferences and other activities across the European Union to draw attention to the collapse of the democratic system in Russia. This culminated in a barrage of denunciations after the Russian takeover of the Crimea in 2014, and a rigorous set of sanctions against the Putin regime, in which McMillan-Scott played a leading role in Brussels. | |||
McMillan-Scott has now asked the Conservative Party to revisit their decision during the summer recess. | |||
In May 2015, he was one of nine British politicians on President Putin's ]. | |||
After his election as Vice President, McMillan-Scott accused Michał Kamiński of being linked with ], ] and ]. Kamiński replied: ''"I am not a Nazi and if he repeats these allegations in public I will sue him. ... Everyone who knows me knows that this is rubbish. I have never done anything improper."<ref>http://www.theparliament.com/no_cache/latestnews/news-article/newsarticle/kaminski-threatens-legal-action-over-nazi-allegations Kaminski threatens legal action over Nazi allegations, TheParliament.com, 16 July 2009</ref> | |||
From 2004 – 2012 he chaired the European Parliament's informal, cross-party Democracy Caucus,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.democracycaucus.org/42904.html?sessionidkey=sessionidval|title=Noticeboard|publisher=European Parliament's Democracy Caucus|access-date=28 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081004143107/http://www.democracycaucus.org/42904.html?sessionidkey=sessionidval|archive-date=4 October 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> which was set up to campaign for a ] and Human Rights (EED). The ambition was to have an equivalent to Washington's ], to work at arms'-length from the EU and to be deniable, expert and flexible. The EED was set up in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|author=cs – čeština |url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2012-0113+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN |title=Texts adopted – Thursday, 29 March 2012 – European Endowment for Democracy – P7_TA(2012)0113 |publisher=Europarl.europa.eu |access-date=21 January 2014}}</ref> | |||
McMillan-Scott is one of the foremost campaigners for reform in China. After his last visit to Beijing, in May 2006, all the dissidents and former prisoners-of-conscience with whom he had contact were arrested, imprisoned and in some cases tortured. These included the Christian human rights lawyer ] and environmental activist ]. McMillan-Scott successfully nominated Hu Jia for the 2008 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Expression, awarded annually by the European Parliament. He has sponsored numerous activities, hearings and resolutions focussed on reform in China. In November 2010 he met the dissident artist ], co-designer of Beijing's ] stadium, who made a highly-critical series of comments for McMillan-Scott's YouTube channel.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZIWSJPq3vY&list=UUPx6ZqHBnqZBcDiP2zUx8MQ&index=20&feature=plcp |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/yZIWSJPq3vY |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=Ai Weiwei tells Edward McMillan-Scott MEP: Beijing regime is 'finished' |publisher=YouTube |access-date=21 January 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Ai Weiwei later spent some months under house arrest in Beijing. | |||
He has argued for an Impunity Index to be maintained by the International Criminal Court, based on the West German Salzgitter Process during the Cold War, where anonymous denunciations of crimes against humanity in totalitarian states may later lead to prosecutions. | |||
He wrote a key report for the European Parliament's ], of which he was at one time the longest-serving member, on a new EU–China strategy in 1997.<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.eppgroup.eu/Press/showpr.asp?PRControlDocTypeID=1&PRControlID=6853&PRContentID=12006&PRContentLG=en|title=MEPs demand IOC assessment on China's human rights record on eve of Olympic year. Edward McMillan-Scott MEP|date=13 December 2007|publisher=EPP Group in the European Parliament|access-date=2 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111208080529/http://www.eppgroup.eu/Press/showpr.asp?PRControlDocTypeID=1&PRControlID=6853&PRContentID=12006&PRContentLG=en|archive-date=8 December 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.emcmillanscott.com/14.html|title=Reform in China – the world's biggest country|publisher=Edward McMillan-Scott|access-date=2 August 2009|archive-date=17 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100317200705/http://www.emcmillanscott.com/14.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Following subsequent visits to China and pre-Olympic crackdowns he initiated a campaign aimed at an EU political boycott of the ] Beijing Olympic Games.<ref name="Boycott">{{cite web|url=http://www.boycottbeijing.eu/|title=Welcome to BoycottBeijing.eu homepage|publisher=BoycottBeijing.eu|access-date=2 August 2009|archive-date=15 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071215111328/http://www.boycottbeijing.eu/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the event, the Presidents of the European Parliament and ] boycotted the Games, as did the EU's external affairs Commissioner.<ref name="Boycott" /> | |||
McMillan-Scott was the first politician to visit Tibet after a three-year blackout, in 1996. He has subsequently championed the cause of Tibetan independence, taking part in numerous activities to highlight oppression in Tibet. He and his staff have made many speeches and taken part in pro-democracy activities with Tibetan exiles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chithu.org/mp3/pdf/mangtso2011.pdf|title=50th Anniversary of Democracy by Tibetan in Exile|language=bo|access-date=28 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810005848/http://www.chithu.org/mp3/pdf/mangtso2011.pdf|archive-date=10 August 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
In October 2006, McMillan-Scott visited Cuba, where he met Sakharov prize winners, the "]", and the late Oswaldo Payá, as well as other dissidents. He has since encouraged their campaign for political freedoms. | |||
===Falun Gong=== | |||
{{main|Persecution of Falun Gong|Organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China}} | |||
] in a press conference, 2009]] | |||
McMillan-Scott, although he has no religious beliefs, has championed ], a spiritual practice which has been ] by the Chinese government since 1999. | |||
In 2006 he stated "We are talking about ]. The Falun Gong has been singled out. This is why governments must take action and put pressure to bear on the United Nations to conduct an inquiry."<ref name=SMH>{{cite news|first=Tom |last=Allard |date=16 August 2006 |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/call-to-un-to-probe-falun-gong-genocide-claims/2006/08/15/1155407814508.html |title=Call to UN to probe Falun Gong genocide claims |work=] |access-date=16 March 2015}}</ref> | |||
He met many former prisoners<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh0xifZVFvE |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/Mh0xifZVFvE |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=Edward McMillan-Scott MEP interviews China torture camp survivor|publisher= YouTube|date= 13 September 2007|access-date=11 February 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref> and published accounts of their torture.<ref>{{cite news|first=Edward |last=McMillan-Scott|url= http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_threats/human_substance/oc_organs/docs/oc_organs_001b_en.pdf |title=Hearsay evidence taken at a meeting in Beijing, China on 21 May 2006|publisher= European Commission|access-date=16 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Edward |last=McMillan-Scott |url=http://boycottbeijing.eu/7.html |title=UN torture report |publisher=BoycottBeijing.EU |access-date=27 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071215111344/http://boycottbeijing.eu/7.html |archive-date=15 December 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
He campaigned against ]<ref name=orgharv>], ] (6 July 2006, revised 31 January 2007) (free in 22 languages) organharvestinvestigation.net</ref> of Falun Gong in China.<ref name=SMH/><ref>Peter Westmore (2 September 2006) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401000457/http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=2767 |date=1 April 2016 }} News Weekly Australia</ref> In 2012 he stated, "I am absolutely convinced that over a long period from 1999 onwards, organ harvesting from prisoners has been taking place, especially of Falun Gong".<ref> (2012) YouTube video, 8 minutes</ref> ] interviewed over 100 witnesses and estimated that 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008.<ref name=Jay>] (25 August 2014) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607203837/http://www.nationalreview.com/sites/default/files/nordlinger_gutmann08-25-14.html |date=7 June 2017 }}, National Review</ref><ref>Viv Young (11 August 2014) , ''New York Journal of Books''</ref><ref name=Slaughter>Ethan Gutmann (August 2014) "Average number of Falun Gong in Laogai System at any given time" Low estimate 450,000, High estimate 1,000,000 p 320. "Best estimate of Falun Gong harvested 2000 to 2008" 65,000 p 322. amazon.com</ref><ref name=Tstar>{{cite news|first=Barbara |last=Turnbull |date=21 October 2014|url=https://www.thestar.com/life/2014/10/21/qa_author_and_analyst_ethan_gutmann_discusses_chinas_illegal_organ_trade.html |title=Q&A: Author and analyst Ethan Gutmann discusses China's illegal organ trade|newspaper= The Toronto Star|access-date=16 March 2015}}</ref> | |||
===Arab world=== | |||
McMillan-Scott, a relation of ] through the latter's father, Sir Thomas Chapman Bt, has campaigned for reform across the Arab world since a visit to Jordan in 1993. He championed Egypt's liberal ] from 2003, and secured the release of its leader, ], after he was imprisoned for standing against former President Mubarak in 2005. He was the first outside politician to get to Cairo at the end of the revolution in February 2011 and made a series of visits to the region in the following months.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/arab-spring-one-year-on-edward-mcmillan-scott/ |title=Arab spring one year on: Edward McMillan-Scott |publisher=theparliament.com |date=6 February 2012 |access-date=21 January 2014}}</ref> In September 2012, jointly with the leader of the ALDE group in the European Parliament, ], he was present at the launch of the Arab Leaders for Freedom and Democracy. The meetings were attended among others by Ayman Nour, ] and interim Libyan premier ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alde.eu/press/press-and-release-news/press-release/article/guy-verhofstadt-a-historic-alliance-of-secular-arab-leaders-is-launched-in-cairo-39770/ |title=Press Release |publisher=Alde.eu |date=24 September 2012 |access-date=21 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121211094016/http://www.alde.eu/press/press-and-release-news/press-release/article/guy-verhofstadt-a-historic-alliance-of-secular-arab-leaders-is-launched-in-cairo-39770/ |archive-date=11 December 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
===Children's rights=== | |||
McMillan-Scott campaigns for improved children's rights across the EU and has dealt with a number of cross-frontier ] cases.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.emcmillanscott.com/14.html|title=Children's champion|publisher=Edward McMillan-Scott|access-date=31 July 2009|archive-date=17 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100317200705/http://www.emcmillanscott.com/14.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He began campaigning for an EU-wide missing child alert, similar to the ] system in the US, with Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of missing ]. A resolution to this effect, in the summer of 2008, was sponsored by McMillan-Scott and gained the support of a majority of MEPs. In the US, the Department of Justice's Amber Alert has recovered over 500 abducted children since 2003, 80% within the crucial first 72 hours.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} France has an identical system but other countries, including the UK, rely on a patchwork of police schemes and children's charities. By 2022 the EU had established its own Amber Alert . | |||
===Anti-fraud=== | |||
In 1999 McMillan-Scott was singled out by "whistleblower" ] for his role in the 1999 fall of the European Commission. After McMillan-Scott's discovery of fraud in the EU Commission's tourism unit during the 1990 European Year of Tourism, which McMillan-Scott had initiated, he campaigned for reform and in 1995 caused the first-ever raid by Belgium's fraud squad on the commission. After a report by a panel of independent Wise Men, the commission was later accused of serious irregularities, nepotism and allegations of fraud leading to the ] and all his commissioners in 1999.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/historic_moments/newsid_8207000/8207105.stm|title=Downfall of the Commission|publisher=BBC|work=Democracy Live|date=31 October 2009|access-date=29 September 2010}}</ref> | |||
His "Golden Fleece" campaign against fraud and malpractice in the Costa villa and ] market won wide support, leading to the EU Timeshare Directive in 1994.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://emcmillanscott.com/about-edward/4572986879 |title=About Edward |publisher=emcmillanscott |access-date=27 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231215911/http://emcmillanscott.com/about-edward/4572986879 |archive-date=31 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31994L0047:EN:HTML|title=Directive 94/47/EC of the European Parliament and the Council|date=26 October 1994|work=EUR-Lex|publisher=Publications Office of the European Union|access-date=1 August 2009}}</ref> He continued to campaign for more secure ] in the EU's neighbouring states, as buyers move into the Balkans, Turkey and North Africa, where the legal framework is less secure.<ref name="Property">{{cite web|url=http://www.emcmillanscott.com/14.html|title=Property Rights|publisher=Edward McMillan Scott|access-date=1 August 2009|archive-date=17 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100317200705/http://www.emcmillanscott.com/14.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
===Single Seat of the European Parliament in Brussels=== | |||
McMillan-Scott was a member of every initiative aimed at ending the European Parliament's monthly four-day sessions in Strasbourg since his election in 1984. In October 2010 he set up the Brussels-Strasbourg Study Group of senior MEPs to provide objective information. Its February 2011 report "A Tale of Two Cities" stated that the additional cost is €180 million and 19,000 tonnes of {{CO2}} a year. The Single Seat campaign,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.singleseat.eu/ |title=Home – SingleSeat.eu – a campaign for a single seat for the European Parliament |publisher=SingleSeat.eu |date=17 January 2014 |access-date=21 January 2014}}</ref> aimed at moving all the European Parliament's activities to Brussels. McMillan-Scott was awarded the ''Parliament'' magazine's 2012 Award for "Outstanding Contribution" partly for his leadership of the campaign, which resulted in a large majority of MEPs voting for their governments to address the issue.<ref>{{cite web |author=SingleSeat.eu |url=http://www.singleseat.eu/12.html |title=Resources – SingleSeat.eu – a campaign for a single seat for the European Parliament |publisher=SingleSeat.eu |access-date=28 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213101816/http://www.singleseat.eu/12.html |archive-date=13 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
===Sustainable food=== | |||
Since 2008 McMillan-Scott has eaten no meat<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/mar/12/boris-meat-free-vegetarian-carbon-emissions|title=Why I'm challenging Boris to go meat-free|last=McMillan-Scott|first=Edward|date=12 March 2009|work=The Guardian |location=London|publisher=Guardian News and Media Limited|access-date=22 January 2011}}</ref> because of its alleged effect on climate change and in December 2009 invited Sir Paul McCartney to a conference called Less Meat = Less Heat,<ref>{{cite news|last=Owen |first=Jonathan |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/sir-paul-to-tell-eu-less-meat-means-less-heat-1830669.html |title=Sir Paul to tell EU: 'Less meat means less heat' – Climate Change – Environment |work=The Independent |date=29 November 2009 |access-date=21 January 2014 |location=London}}</ref> jointly with Dr ], chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.<ref>{{cite web|author=cs – čeština |url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20091130IPR65643+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN |title=Global warming: less meat = less heat |publisher=Europarl.europa.eu |date=1 December 2009 |access-date=21 January 2014}}</ref> McCartney campaigns for less meat consumption as Meat Free Mondays. A long-term campaigner for reform of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy, in June 2011 McMillan-Scott invited Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to Brussels to internationalise the super-chef's Fish Fight against discards. On 3 December 2013, Edward launched EU Food Sense: your right to the right food,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eufoodsense.com/ |title=home |publisher=EU Food Sense |access-date=21 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620041718/http://www.eufoodsense.com/ |archive-date=20 June 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> a campaign for a ] policy in the EU to replace the wasteful Common Agricultural Policy. | |||
==Leaving the Conservative Party== | |||
Before the ], the British Conservative MEPs were allied members of the ] (EPP).<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7938482.stm |title=UK | UK Politics | Tories leaving Europe's EPP group |work=BBC News |date=11 March 2009 |access-date=27 January 2014}}</ref> After the election, jointly with the then leader of the Conservative Party ], McMillan-Scott negotiated the "Málaga Agreement" which provided for a more detached relationship between the 36 British Conservative MEPs and the newly formed ] (EPP-ED) coalition.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> This agreement remained in force until the ] when the Conservatives broke links with the EPP and formed part of the new ] (ECR) group.<ref>{{cite press release|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/16665126/ECR-formation-Press-release-june-22-2009|title=European Conservatives and Reformists form New Grouping in the European Parliament|date=22 June 2009|work=Scribd|publisher=European Conservatives and Reformists|access-date=1 August 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8112581.stm|title=Conservative MEPs form new group |date=22 June 2009|work=]|publisher=BBC|access-date=1 August 2009}}</ref> | |||
Following his re-election to the European Parliament, McMillan-Scott left the EPP group and joined the new ECR group in accordance with the Conservative manifesto for the election.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.conservatives.com/~/media/Files/Downloadable%20Files/Euro%20Election%202009/euro-manifesto.ashx|title=Vote ForChange – European Election Manifesto|year=2009|publisher=Conservative Party|format=PDF|access-date=2 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629000741/http://www.conservatives.com/~/media/Files/Downloadable%20Files/Euro%20Election%202009/euro-manifesto.ashx|archive-date=29 June 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> He attended the inaugural meeting of the new group, in ] on 24 June, where he expressed the view that he was uncomfortable with some members of the group having possible links with extremist groups.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/5626057/Tory-MEP-voices-real-concern-over-new-European-grouping.html|title=Tory MEP voices 'real concern' over new European grouping|last=Banks |first=Martin |date=25 June 2009|work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London|access-date=1 August 2009}}</ref> | |||
In July 2009 he successfully stood for re-election as ] against the nominee of the new ECR group, ], a ] MEP from the ],<ref name="BBC">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8150922.stm|title=Defiant Tory MEP loses party whip |date=15 July 2009|work=]|publisher=BBC|access-date=1 August 2009}}</ref><ref name="Times">{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6711063.ece|title=Tories expel MEP Edward McMillan-Scott in row over Cameron reforms|last=Charter |first=David|date=15 July 2009|work=] |publisher=Times Newspapers Ltd|access-date=5 August 2009 | location=London}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> after discovering Kamiński's past links to an extremist group in Poland.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/> Although he was offered a peerage (membership of the UK House of Lords) by then UK prime minister David Cameron, he declined. As a result, the Conservative ] was withdrawn.<ref name="BBC"/><ref name="Times" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://euobserver.com/9/28457 |title=New European Conservatives group in disarray over renegade MEP |access-date=15 July 2009 |date=14 July 2009 }}</ref> McMillan-Scott was then seated as a non-attached (]) MEP in the European Parliament,<ref name="DODs">{{cite web|url=http://www.theparliament.com/no_cache/latestnews/news-article/newsarticle/suspended-tory-mep-hits-back-at-allegations-of-disloyalty/|title=McMillan-Scott hits back at allegations of disloyalty|last=Banks|first=Martin|date=15 July 2009|work=The Parliament.com|publisher=Dod's Parliamentary Communications Ltd|access-date=1 August 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090722173329/http://www.theparliament.com/no_cache/latestnews/news-article/newsarticle/suspended-tory-mep-hits-back-at-allegations-of-disloyalty/|archive-date=22 July 2009}}</ref> though he remained a member of the British Conservative Party.<ref name="DODs" /> | |||
On 10 August 2009, ] wrote a letter to McMillan-Scott, described by the ConservativeHome website as "humiliating".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2009/08/hague-accuses-mcmillanscott-of-recklessly-using-smears-for-individual-glorification.html |title=Hague accuses McMillan-Scott of recklessly using smears for "individual glorification" The Tory Diary |publisher=Conservativehome.blogs.com |date=11 August 2009 |access-date=21 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130625090508/http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2009/08/hague-accuses-mcmillanscott-of-recklessly-using-smears-for-individual-glorification.html |archive-date=25 June 2013 }}</ref> On 15 September 2009, he was expelled from the Conservative Party without notice or reason. The doyen of '']'' wrote a stinging attack entitled "Own goal as Tories force out a decent man".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/letters-and-columnists/bernard-dineen-own-goal-as-tories-force-out-a-decent-man-1-2568291 |title=Bernard Dineen: Own goal as Tories force out a decent man |newspaper=Yorkshire Post |date=22 March 2010 |access-date=21 January 2014}}</ref> McMillan-Scott appealed and issued a series of open letters to his constituents but, after his lawyers declared that he could not expect a fair hearing from the Conservative Party, he wrote to David Cameron on 12 March 2010 outlining his reasons for resigning his appeal.<ref name="EMS joins LDs">{{cite news|first=Paul |last=Owen |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/mar/12/edward-mcmillan-scott-defects-to-lib-dems |title=Former leader of Tory MEPs Edward MacMillan-Scott joins Lib Dems | Politics |newspaper=The Guardian |date= 12 March 2010|access-date=21 January 2014 |location=London}}</ref> The vilification of McMillan-Scott by the Conservative Party included the alteration of Misplaced Pages pages, in an attempt "to airbrush the embarrassing past" of Michał Kamiński, chairman of the ECR. McMillan-Scott also stated that his own article had also been edited in this way. An article published in '']'' newspaper reports edits to the articles made on 25 June 2009 from ]es originating in the ].<ref>{{cite news|first1=Toby |last1=Helm|first2= Rajeev |last2=Syal |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/18/conservatives-hid-past-european-ally |title=House of Commons computer used to hide past of Tory ally Kaminski | Politics | The Observer |newspaper=The Guardian |date= 18 October 2009|access-date=21 January 2014 |location=London}}</ref> | |||
===The rise of the right=== | |||
McMillan-Scott has long studied totalitarianism; his opposition to the Soviet system was shared by many Conservatives. However, with the transition to democracy he found that increasingly the Conservative Party saw European Union enlargement as a means to dismembering the EU. It began to make common cause with what McMillan-Scott saw as rightist groups and factions in the new democracies.<ref>{{cite news|first=Ian |last=Traynor |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/02/david-cameron-alliance-polish-nationalists |title=Anti-gay, climate change deniers: meet David Cameron's new friends | Politics |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=12 March 2014}}</ref> Through his family's background, McMillan-Scott was alarmed at what he saw as the rise of disguised extremism and forms of neo-fascism.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jan/16/conservative-values-europe-extremism |title=What happened to Conservative values? | Edward McMillan-Scott | Comment is free |newspaper=The Guardian |date=28 September 2007 |access-date=12 March 2014}}</ref> '']'' magazine's cover story after the European elections of 2009 reported that Europe had made a far right turn, covering the rise of the right in ten EU countries.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://content.time.com/time/covers/europe/0,16641,20090810,00.html |title=Far Right Turn |newspaper=] |date=10 August 2009 |at=cover |access-date=12 March 2014}}</ref> McMillan-Scott's rejection of ]'s new ECR group and his successful stand as an independent vice-president against Michał Kamiński finally led to his break with the Conservative Party. | |||
==Joining the Liberal Democrats== | |||
On 12 March 2010 McMillan-Scott joined the ], as he felt that they provided a more suitable home with a focus on human rights and an internationalist agenda.<ref name="Joins Lib-Dems" /> The Liberal Democrats were a member of the ] (ALDE) in the European Parliament, which McMillan-Scott formally joined on 17 May. He was nominated by the Liberal Democrat MEPs, and then the ALDE group, as a candidate for vice-president in January 2012 and was then successfully re-elected. He described the ] as "the happiest moment in my political life: Liberal Democrats have tamed the Conservative extremists".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.libdems.org.uk/meps_detail.aspx?name=Edward_McMillan-Scott&pPK=e0e39825-c918-4588-b4bb-93a4aebb3492 |title=Edward McMillan-Scott – MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber | The Liberal Democrats – Our MEPs: Detail |publisher=Libdems.org.uk |access-date=27 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026042939/http://www.libdems.org.uk/meps_detail.aspx?name=Edward_McMillan-Scott&pPK=e0e39825-c918-4588-b4bb-93a4aebb3492 |archive-date=26 October 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
==UK Parliament candidacies== | |||
At the ], McMillan-Scott was the Liberal Democrat 'media' or 'paper' candidate for the Yorkshire parliamentary seat of ]. The seat was retained by the Labour Party candidate ] MP with a 15,428 majority. | |||
In May 2017 he fought the ] parliamentary seat during ] for the Liberal Democrats, again as a 'media' or 'paper' candidate. He came third with 9% of the vote. | |||
==Personal life== | |||
McMillan-Scott married a child rights lawyer, Henrietta, in 1972. They have two daughters (Lucinda, born 1973, and Arabella, born 1976) and four granddaughters (Edie, born 1999, Esme, born 2001, Sylvia, born 2012, and Matilda, born 2016). His home is near ], Worcestershire, where his family moved from Yorkshire in the 18th century. | |||
==Articles== | |||
* , ''Yorkshire Post'', 13 June 2006 | |||
==Documentaries== | |||
He appeared in ''Transmission 6–10'' (2009),<ref>, (52 minutes) YouTube, 20 February 2011</ref> and ''Red Reign: The Bloody Harvest of China's Prisoners'' (2013).<ref>, (4 minutes) YouTube, 30 July 2013</ref> | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
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British politician
Edward McMillan-Scott | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Eighth Vice-President of the European Parliament | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 17 January 2012 – 1 July 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
President | Martin Schulz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Isabelle Durant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Sylvie Guillaume | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Twelfth Vice-President of the European Parliament | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 14 July 2009 – 17 January 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
President | Jerzy Buzek | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Diana Wallis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Oldřich Vlasák | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fourth Vice-President of the European Parliament | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 30 July 2004 – 14 July 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
President | Josep Borrell Hans-Gert Pöttering | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Miguel Ángel Martínez Martínez | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 16 September 1997 – 14 December 2001 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Tom Spencer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Jonathan Evans | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | (1949-08-15) 15 August 1949 (age 75) Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Political party | Non-party (2019–present) Liberal Democrats (2010–2019) Independent (2009–2010) Conservative (1967–2009) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse | Henrietta McMillan-Scott | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Edward McMillan-Scott (born in Cambridge on 15 August 1949) is a British politician. He was a pro-EU Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for York and Yorkshire and the Humber constituencies from 1984 until 2014. He was the last and one of the longest-serving UK Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament 2004–2014, holding its Human Rights and Democracy portfolio throughout. In 2009, he renounced a peerage (life membership of the House of Lords) in protest at UK premier David Cameron's withdrawal from the Centrist EPP Group. After losing his seat as an MEP he became active in campaigning against Brexit and coordinates the largest pro EU forum in the UK.
McMillan-Scott was elected an honorary Board member of the European Parliament's 700-member Former Members Association in 2014 and has been re-elected biannually since. In 2014 he was also elected an honorary Patron at its AGM by the European Movement UK, which he first joined aged 23 in 1973.
McMillan-Scott is a lifelong pro-European. Following David Cameron's decision to withdraw the Conservative MEPs from the centre-right European People's Party in order to form the European Conservative and Reformist's Group, McMillan-Scott objected. When the composition of Cameron's new ECR group was announced after the European elections of 2009, McMillan-Scott protested and left. The new group was described by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg as "a bunch of nutters, homophobes, anti-Semites and climate change deniers".
In July 2009 McMillan-Scott successfully stood as the first-ever Independent vice-president of the European Parliament against the nominee of the ECR Group, Polish MEP Michał Kamiński, criticising Kamiński's past links to extremism, confirmed inter alia by the Daily Telegraph. Shortly before this, McMillan-Scott was telephoned by then UK premier David Cameron, who offered him a peerage (membership of the House of Lords) the usual reward for leaders of the Conservative group of MEPs (Henry Plumb, Christopher Prout, Timothy Kirkhope etc ) but McMillan-Scott declined.
In 1992, McMillan-Scott founded the EU's Instrument for Human Rights and Democracy (EIDHR) - now the EU's Global Europe Human Rights & Democracy Programme, which remain's the world's largest dedicated programme with an annual budget of Euro 1.5 billion.
In March 2010, he joined the Liberal Democrats with whom he had usually worked closely on democracy and human rights issues. In May 2010 he became a member of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament. He then sat as ALDE Vice-President of the European Parliament. In January 2012, he was re-elected as vice-president for the fourth time. He once again received the portfolio for Democracy and Human Rights as well as additionally gaining the Sakharov Prize Network, which underpins the parliament's annual prize for freedom of expression and responsibility for transatlantic relations.
Since 2017 McMillan-Scott has coordinated a forum of operational pro-European organisations known as Where Next for Brexit? now renamed PRO EU FORUM UK. This was the stakeholder forum for the Grassroots Coordinating Group set up by former MPs Chuka Umunna and Anna Soubry to argue for a second referendum on Brexit and is closely linked to the European Movement. McMillan-Scott and colleagues raised over £2 million for the People's Vote campaign, launched in April 2018 to campaign for a second referendum on Brexit.
By 2019 the People's Vote campaign was organising massive demonstrations, culminating in a million-strong rally at Westminster in October 2019. That same weekend, the ten DUP (Northern Irish) MPs decided to back the campaign, thereby creating a parliamentary majority. At this point Roland Rudd, a financial PR and chair of Open Britain - just one of several organisations under the People's Vote umbrella - crashed the campaign by sacking 40 staff, changing the locks at People's Vote's Millbank offices and seizing its financial and data assets, using a financial vehicle he had secretly set up that summer. Rudd has never explained his motive, although within days he was one of only 30 guests at the wedding of Boris Johnson, with whom he had been at Eton: another guest was their schoolmate Hugo Dixon, former chair of In Facts, a website about Brexit.
Early life
McMillan-Scott was born 15 August 1949 in Cambridge, England, one of seven children of the late Walter, an architect, and the late Elisabeth McMillan-Scott, née Hudson. He was educated privately by Dominican friars. He worked across the continent, the USSR and Africa as a tour director for a US company for several years. He speaks French, Italian, some German and Spanish. From 1973 he worked in public affairs and in 1982 set up his own Whitehall consultancy. His clients included the Falkland Islands Government. He became a member of the Conservative Party in 1967 and joined the European Movement in 1973. He was one of the joint regional coordinators for the Yes to Europe campaign in the 1975 referendum on EC membership.
European Parliament
McMillan-Scott was elected as the MEP for York from 1984 to 1994, then MEP for North Yorkshire from 1994 to 1999, and an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber from 1999 until 2014.
Roles and responsibilities
McMillan-Scott was leader of the British Conservative MEPs between September 1997 and December 2001, and attended the Shadow Cabinet on European issues. On 23 July 2004 he was elected fourth of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. He was re-elected a vice-president in 2007, 2009 and 2012. McMillan-Scott's special responsibilities as vice-president included relations with national EU parliaments and the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, which brings together 280 MPs from the EU, North Africa and the Middle East. After re-election as vice-president in 2009, his responsibilities as vice-president were Democracy and Human Rights, relations with national parliaments, and chairing the European Parliament's Audit Panel. After re-election in 2012 he continued with the democracy and human rights portfolio and additionally the Sakharov Prize Network and transatlantic relations.
He founded the regular forum between the Human Rights and Democracy Network, more than 40 Brussels-based NGOs, and the European Parliament, whose aim is to maximise EU attention to these topics.
He sat on the Supervisory Group which oversees all the European Parliament's democracy and human rights activities, including election observation. He has participated in numerous such missions since 1990. He was elected chairman of the European Parliament's largest-ever election observer missions, 30 MEPs, to the Palestinian territories in January 2005 and January 2006. These observers monitored the Palestinian National Authority's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Awards and prizes
Medal of Honour
McMillan-Scott was presented in September 2013 with the Medal of Honour by the Venice-based European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation, comprising 41 universities, "in recognition of his lasting efforts in the promotion and protection of human rights". Previous winners are Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Manfred Nowak, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.
Outstanding Contribution
McMillan-Scott won the top award, for "Outstanding Contribution" in the 2012 MEP Awards presented by the Parliament magazine, Brussels sister publication of Westminster's House magazine. The citation referred to his achievements in democracy and human rights, especially his active involvement in the Arab Spring, as well as his leadership of the Single Seat campaign to end MEPs' monthly trek from their base in Brussels to their official "seat" in Strasbourg.
Campaigning
Democracy and human rights
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, McMillan-Scott founded the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), to facilitate the development of democracy and civil society in the ex-Soviet bloc countries, and which is now directed towards the reforming Arab world and countries resisting reform such as China, Cuba and Russia. The instrument makes €1.5 billion every seven years available to those promoting human rights and democracy, often without the applicant's host country consent.
As a frequent visitor to countries of the former Soviet Bloc and its satellites after his election in 1984, where he had contacts with dissidents, McMillan-Scott was arrested and fined in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in 1972 for visiting former religious institutions while working as a tour guide. He was present during the October 1993 attempted coup d'état by old guard communists against President Boris Yeltsin and was the only outside politician to speak at Garry Kasparov's July 2006 "Other Russia" rally.
Since then he visited Russia frequently to engage with the leaders of the mounting anti-Putin movement and initiated a range of debates, resolutions, conferences and other activities across the European Union to draw attention to the collapse of the democratic system in Russia. This culminated in a barrage of denunciations after the Russian takeover of the Crimea in 2014, and a rigorous set of sanctions against the Putin regime, in which McMillan-Scott played a leading role in Brussels.
In May 2015, he was one of nine British politicians on President Putin's visa blacklist.
From 2004 – 2012 he chaired the European Parliament's informal, cross-party Democracy Caucus, which was set up to campaign for a European Endowment for Democracy and Human Rights (EED). The ambition was to have an equivalent to Washington's National Endowment for Democracy, to work at arms'-length from the EU and to be deniable, expert and flexible. The EED was set up in 2012.
McMillan-Scott is one of the foremost campaigners for reform in China. After his last visit to Beijing, in May 2006, all the dissidents and former prisoners-of-conscience with whom he had contact were arrested, imprisoned and in some cases tortured. These included the Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng and environmental activist Hu Jia. McMillan-Scott successfully nominated Hu Jia for the 2008 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Expression, awarded annually by the European Parliament. He has sponsored numerous activities, hearings and resolutions focussed on reform in China. In November 2010 he met the dissident artist Ai Weiwei, co-designer of Beijing's Birds Nest stadium, who made a highly-critical series of comments for McMillan-Scott's YouTube channel. Ai Weiwei later spent some months under house arrest in Beijing.
He has argued for an Impunity Index to be maintained by the International Criminal Court, based on the West German Salzgitter Process during the Cold War, where anonymous denunciations of crimes against humanity in totalitarian states may later lead to prosecutions.
He wrote a key report for the European Parliament's foreign affairs select committee, of which he was at one time the longest-serving member, on a new EU–China strategy in 1997. Following subsequent visits to China and pre-Olympic crackdowns he initiated a campaign aimed at an EU political boycott of the August 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In the event, the Presidents of the European Parliament and European Commission boycotted the Games, as did the EU's external affairs Commissioner.
McMillan-Scott was the first politician to visit Tibet after a three-year blackout, in 1996. He has subsequently championed the cause of Tibetan independence, taking part in numerous activities to highlight oppression in Tibet. He and his staff have made many speeches and taken part in pro-democracy activities with Tibetan exiles.
In October 2006, McMillan-Scott visited Cuba, where he met Sakharov prize winners, the "Ladies in White", and the late Oswaldo Payá, as well as other dissidents. He has since encouraged their campaign for political freedoms.
Falun Gong
Main articles: Persecution of Falun Gong and Organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in ChinaMcMillan-Scott, although he has no religious beliefs, has championed Falun Gong, a spiritual practice which has been persecuted by the Chinese government since 1999. In 2006 he stated "We are talking about genocide. The Falun Gong has been singled out. This is why governments must take action and put pressure to bear on the United Nations to conduct an inquiry." He met many former prisoners and published accounts of their torture.
He campaigned against organ harvesting of Falun Gong in China. In 2012 he stated, "I am absolutely convinced that over a long period from 1999 onwards, organ harvesting from prisoners has been taking place, especially of Falun Gong". Ethan Gutmann interviewed over 100 witnesses and estimated that 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008.
Arab world
McMillan-Scott, a relation of T. E. Lawrence through the latter's father, Sir Thomas Chapman Bt, has campaigned for reform across the Arab world since a visit to Jordan in 1993. He championed Egypt's liberal El Ghad party from 2003, and secured the release of its leader, Dr Ayman Nour, after he was imprisoned for standing against former President Mubarak in 2005. He was the first outside politician to get to Cairo at the end of the revolution in February 2011 and made a series of visits to the region in the following months. In September 2012, jointly with the leader of the ALDE group in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, he was present at the launch of the Arab Leaders for Freedom and Democracy. The meetings were attended among others by Ayman Nour, Amre Moussa and interim Libyan premier Mahmud Gibril.
Children's rights
McMillan-Scott campaigns for improved children's rights across the EU and has dealt with a number of cross-frontier child abduction cases. He began campaigning for an EU-wide missing child alert, similar to the Amber Alert system in the US, with Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of missing Madeleine. A resolution to this effect, in the summer of 2008, was sponsored by McMillan-Scott and gained the support of a majority of MEPs. In the US, the Department of Justice's Amber Alert has recovered over 500 abducted children since 2003, 80% within the crucial first 72 hours. France has an identical system but other countries, including the UK, rely on a patchwork of police schemes and children's charities. By 2022 the EU had established its own Amber Alert system.
Anti-fraud
In 1999 McMillan-Scott was singled out by "whistleblower" Paul van Buitenen for his role in the 1999 fall of the European Commission. After McMillan-Scott's discovery of fraud in the EU Commission's tourism unit during the 1990 European Year of Tourism, which McMillan-Scott had initiated, he campaigned for reform and in 1995 caused the first-ever raid by Belgium's fraud squad on the commission. After a report by a panel of independent Wise Men, the commission was later accused of serious irregularities, nepotism and allegations of fraud leading to the resignation of President Jacques Santer and all his commissioners in 1999.
His "Golden Fleece" campaign against fraud and malpractice in the Costa villa and timeshare market won wide support, leading to the EU Timeshare Directive in 1994. He continued to campaign for more secure property rights in the EU's neighbouring states, as buyers move into the Balkans, Turkey and North Africa, where the legal framework is less secure.
Single Seat of the European Parliament in Brussels
McMillan-Scott was a member of every initiative aimed at ending the European Parliament's monthly four-day sessions in Strasbourg since his election in 1984. In October 2010 he set up the Brussels-Strasbourg Study Group of senior MEPs to provide objective information. Its February 2011 report "A Tale of Two Cities" stated that the additional cost is €180 million and 19,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. The Single Seat campaign, aimed at moving all the European Parliament's activities to Brussels. McMillan-Scott was awarded the Parliament magazine's 2012 Award for "Outstanding Contribution" partly for his leadership of the campaign, which resulted in a large majority of MEPs voting for their governments to address the issue.
Sustainable food
Since 2008 McMillan-Scott has eaten no meat because of its alleged effect on climate change and in December 2009 invited Sir Paul McCartney to a conference called Less Meat = Less Heat, jointly with Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. McCartney campaigns for less meat consumption as Meat Free Mondays. A long-term campaigner for reform of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy, in June 2011 McMillan-Scott invited Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to Brussels to internationalise the super-chef's Fish Fight against discards. On 3 December 2013, Edward launched EU Food Sense: your right to the right food, a campaign for a sustainable food policy in the EU to replace the wasteful Common Agricultural Policy.
Leaving the Conservative Party
Before the European elections of June 1999, the British Conservative MEPs were allied members of the European People's Party (EPP). After the election, jointly with the then leader of the Conservative Party William Hague, McMillan-Scott negotiated the "Málaga Agreement" which provided for a more detached relationship between the 36 British Conservative MEPs and the newly formed European People's Party–European Democrats (EPP-ED) coalition. This agreement remained in force until the 2009 elections when the Conservatives broke links with the EPP and formed part of the new European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.
Following his re-election to the European Parliament, McMillan-Scott left the EPP group and joined the new ECR group in accordance with the Conservative manifesto for the election. He attended the inaugural meeting of the new group, in Brussels on 24 June, where he expressed the view that he was uncomfortable with some members of the group having possible links with extremist groups.
In July 2009 he successfully stood for re-election as Vice-President of the European Parliament against the nominee of the new ECR group, Michał Kamiński, a Polish MEP from the Law and Justice Party, after discovering Kamiński's past links to an extremist group in Poland. Although he was offered a peerage (membership of the UK House of Lords) by then UK prime minister David Cameron, he declined. As a result, the Conservative whip was withdrawn. McMillan-Scott was then seated as a non-attached (Non-Inscrit) MEP in the European Parliament, though he remained a member of the British Conservative Party.
On 10 August 2009, William Hague wrote a letter to McMillan-Scott, described by the ConservativeHome website as "humiliating". On 15 September 2009, he was expelled from the Conservative Party without notice or reason. The doyen of The Yorkshire Post wrote a stinging attack entitled "Own goal as Tories force out a decent man". McMillan-Scott appealed and issued a series of open letters to his constituents but, after his lawyers declared that he could not expect a fair hearing from the Conservative Party, he wrote to David Cameron on 12 March 2010 outlining his reasons for resigning his appeal. The vilification of McMillan-Scott by the Conservative Party included the alteration of Misplaced Pages pages, in an attempt "to airbrush the embarrassing past" of Michał Kamiński, chairman of the ECR. McMillan-Scott also stated that his own article had also been edited in this way. An article published in The Observer newspaper reports edits to the articles made on 25 June 2009 from IP addresses originating in the United Kingdom House of Commons.
The rise of the right
McMillan-Scott has long studied totalitarianism; his opposition to the Soviet system was shared by many Conservatives. However, with the transition to democracy he found that increasingly the Conservative Party saw European Union enlargement as a means to dismembering the EU. It began to make common cause with what McMillan-Scott saw as rightist groups and factions in the new democracies. Through his family's background, McMillan-Scott was alarmed at what he saw as the rise of disguised extremism and forms of neo-fascism. Time magazine's cover story after the European elections of 2009 reported that Europe had made a far right turn, covering the rise of the right in ten EU countries. McMillan-Scott's rejection of David Cameron's new ECR group and his successful stand as an independent vice-president against Michał Kamiński finally led to his break with the Conservative Party.
Joining the Liberal Democrats
On 12 March 2010 McMillan-Scott joined the Liberal Democrats, as he felt that they provided a more suitable home with a focus on human rights and an internationalist agenda. The Liberal Democrats were a member of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament, which McMillan-Scott formally joined on 17 May. He was nominated by the Liberal Democrat MEPs, and then the ALDE group, as a candidate for vice-president in January 2012 and was then successfully re-elected. He described the Cameron–Clegg coalition as "the happiest moment in my political life: Liberal Democrats have tamed the Conservative extremists".
UK Parliament candidacies
At the 2015 general election, McMillan-Scott was the Liberal Democrat 'media' or 'paper' candidate for the Yorkshire parliamentary seat of Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford. The seat was retained by the Labour Party candidate Yvette Cooper MP with a 15,428 majority.
In May 2017 he fought the West Worcestershire parliamentary seat during the snap general election for the Liberal Democrats, again as a 'media' or 'paper' candidate. He came third with 9% of the vote.
Personal life
McMillan-Scott married a child rights lawyer, Henrietta, in 1972. They have two daughters (Lucinda, born 1973, and Arabella, born 1976) and four granddaughters (Edie, born 1999, Esme, born 2001, Sylvia, born 2012, and Matilda, born 2016). His home is near Pershore, Worcestershire, where his family moved from Yorkshire in the 18th century.
Articles
- "Secret atrocities of Chinese regime", Yorkshire Post, 13 June 2006
Documentaries
He appeared in Transmission 6–10 (2009), and Red Reign: The Bloody Harvest of China's Prisoners (2013).
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- ^ Charter, David (15 July 2009). "Tories expel MEP Edward McMillan-Scott in row over Cameron reforms". The Times. London: Times Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
- "New European Conservatives group in disarray over renegade MEP". 14 July 2009. Retrieved 15 July 2009.
- ^ Banks, Martin (15 July 2009). "McMillan-Scott hits back at allegations of disloyalty". The Parliament.com. Dod's Parliamentary Communications Ltd. Archived from the original on 22 July 2009. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
- "Hague accuses McMillan-Scott of recklessly using smears for "individual glorification" The Tory Diary". Conservativehome.blogs.com. 11 August 2009. Archived from the original on 25 June 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- "Bernard Dineen: Own goal as Tories force out a decent man". Yorkshire Post. 22 March 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- Owen, Paul (12 March 2010). "Former leader of Tory MEPs Edward MacMillan-Scott joins Lib Dems | Politics". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- Helm, Toby; Syal, Rajeev (18 October 2009). "House of Commons computer used to hide past of Tory ally Kaminski | Politics | The Observer". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- Traynor, Ian. "Anti-gay, climate change deniers: meet David Cameron's new friends | Politics". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
- "What happened to Conservative values? | Edward McMillan-Scott | Comment is free". The Guardian. 28 September 2007. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
- "Far Right Turn". Time. 10 August 2009. cover. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
- "Edward McMillan-Scott – MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber | The Liberal Democrats – Our MEPs: Detail". Libdems.org.uk. Archived from the original on 26 October 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
- "Transmission 6–10: 1st Half", (52 minutes) YouTube, 20 February 2011
- "Red Reign trailer", (4 minutes) YouTube, 30 July 2013
External links
- Official website
- Profile at European Parliament website
- Killed for Organs: China's Secret State Transplant Business (2012) YouTube video, 8 minutes
- European Movement
- Human Rights and Democracy Network
- Fish Fight Archived 29 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- Brussels-Strasbourg Study Group
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Single Seat
European Parliament | ||
---|---|---|
New constituency | Member of the European Parliament for York 1984–1994 |
Constituency abolished |
Member of the European Parliament for North Yorkshire 1994–1999 | ||
Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber 1999–2014 |
Succeeded byJane Collins | |
Party political offices | ||
Preceded byTom Spencer | Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament 1997–2001 |
Succeeded byJonathan Evans |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by | Fourth Vice-President of the European Parliament 2004–2009 |
Succeeded byMiguel Ángel Martínez Martínez |
Preceded byDiana Wallis | Twelfth Vice-President of the European Parliament 2009–2012 |
Succeeded byOldřich Vlasák |
Preceded byIsabelle Durant | Eighth Vice-President of the European Parliament 2012–2014 |
Succeeded bySylvie Guillaume |