Tories to decide fate of MEP after Hitler reference
Saturday, 2 February 2008 12:00 AM
The Conservative party is to decide the fate of an MEP who compared the German president of the European Parliament to Hitler.
Euro MP Daniel Hannan compared the German president of the European legislative body Hans-Gert Poettering's move to limit protests in the chamber to an act which gave Hitler increased powers.
Mr Hannan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he didn't intend to compare Mr Poeterring to a Nazi and was objecting to the Lisbon Treaty, which reformed the European Union, being passed by governments without a popular referendum.
He told the programme: "For clarity, I have never used the word Nazi, I have never used the word Hitler."
The Conservative parliamentarian added that he was making a speech between votes to remind members of the body of the need to hold a referendum on the treaty and that they had "no legal base" to restrict debate on the subject.
He then compared the move to the passage of the notorious Emachtigungsgesetz act of 1933 in the German parliament at the time.
Labour euro-group leader Gary Titley has called on Conservative party leader David Cameron to consider the damage done by the remarks.
He said: "David Cameron should reflect on whether such people like Hannan, so close to the right-wing extremists, should be representing the Conservative party.
"By comparing the ruling of the president of the European parliament with the law that gave unlimited power to Hitler during the week of Holocaust Memorial Day, Hannan is dishonouring memories of the victims of terror of the Nazi regime," he added.
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