Anger at ‘Euro talking shop’ costing Britain £35million a yr

Tory MPs have urged Rishi Sunak to tug out of a European “talking shop” that prices the UK £35million a yr.

They wish to give up the Council of Europe – an organisation that has attacked Government plans to cease migrants arriving illegally in small boats.

Despite leaving the EU, the UK stays a member and sends a delegation to “assembly” periods 4 occasions a yr.

Former Armed Forces minister Sir Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, stated: “I don’t think British tax payers will understand why we’re spending £35million on a European talking shop when there’s so much it could be better spent on here.”

And Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant, a former whip, stated: “Winston Churchill said ‘Jaw Jaw is better than War War’, but I do wonder at times how effective a talking shop the Council of Europe is.”

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Although not a part of the EU, the 46-member Council describes it as its “main institutional partner”. The Council employs 2,200 folks and has a price range of £413.6million.

Meetings often happen in its Strasbourg HQ – generally known as the Palace of Europe – however May’s session was held within the European Parliament. They usually final for every week and contain 324 representatives, together with 18 from the Commons and Lords.

Topics for the June 19 meeting embody “social inclusion of migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons through sport”.

CoE Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic has written to the Commons and Lords Speakers to criticise the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, at the moment going by Parliament, which is able to make it simpler to take away individuals who come to the UK unlawfully.

She stated: “The Bill’s provisions create clear and direct tension with well-established and fundamental human rights standards”.

Ms Mijatovic warned: “Passing the Bill would add to the already significant regression in the protection of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the UK in the last few years.”