A Tory businesswoman was made Britain’s newest MEP yesterday without a single vote being cast.
Anthea McIntyre from Ross on Wye was handed the £84,500-a-year post after Brussels said the UK had qualified for another seat in the European Parliament.The move results from the Lisbon Treaty which created an extra 18 MEPs. Britain qualified for one, which officials said should be for the West Midlands region.
The Electoral Commission analysed the results of the 2009 European elections to decide who would have won the seat if it had then been contested.
Foreign Office minister David Lidington announced yesterday that Miss McIntyre had been judged the winner.
She is expected to take up her seat in Brussels next week, when she will also qualify for a range of lavish expenses and benefits.
The total cost to the taxpayer of each MEP is estimated at more than £2million a year.
UK Independence Party MEP Mike Nattrass condemned the method of Miss McIntyre’s election as deeply undemocratic.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2068839/Woman-takes-MEP-post-despite-single-vote-cast-her.html#ixzz1fLtCPALV
