UK ex-reporter boots Europe

STRASBOURG, France – A eurosceptic Briton told his European Parliament colleagues yesterday they were part of an “inward-looking, bureaucratic and restrictive” union and his constituents wanted no part of it.

Newly elected European parliamentarian Robert Kilroy-Silk, a former television presenter removed by the BBC for branding Arabs “limb amputators and suicide bombers”, is the highest-profile voice of the anti-EU UK Independence Party. Kilroy-Silk said his party would not support former Portuguese prime minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso as president of the 25-nation European Union’s executive Commission because his party did not support the Commission.He criticised the idea of the 732-member European Parliament governing EU citizens, saying his constituents would not stand for it.”They want to be governed by their own people in their own parliament, and they will be during the lifetime of this parliament, believe me,” he told the assembly.The UK Independence Party gained almost 20 percent of the votes in June’s European Parliament elections, capitalising on widespread anti-European sentiment in Britain.- Nampa-ReutersKilroy-Silk said his party would not support former Portuguese prime minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso as president of the 25-nation European Union’s executive Commission because his party did not support the Commission.He criticised the idea of the 732-member European Parliament governing EU citizens, saying his constituents would not stand for it.”They want to be governed by their own people in their own parliament, and they will be during the lifetime of this parliament, believe me,” he told the assembly.The UK Independence Party gained almost 20 percent of the votes in June’s European Parliament elections, capitalising on widespread anti-European sentiment in Britain.- Nampa-Reuters