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Edward McMillan-Scott

Edward McMillan-Scott (born 15 August 1949) is a British politician. He was a pro-EU Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber constituency from 1984 until 2014. He was the last and one of the longest-serving UK Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament 2004–2014. He held its Human Rights and Democracy portfolio. In 1992 he founded the EU's Instrument for Human Rights and Democracy (EIDHR) - now the EU's Global Europe Human Rights & Democracy Programme,[1] which remain's the world's largest dedicated programme.

Edward McMillan-Scott
Eighth Vice-President of the European Parliament
In office
17 January 2012 – 1 July 2014
PresidentMartin Schulz
Preceded byIsabelle Durant
Succeeded bySylvie Guillaume
Twelfth Vice-President of the European Parliament
In office
14 July 2009 – 17 January 2012
PresidentJerzy Buzek
Preceded byDiana Wallis
Succeeded byOldřich Vlasák
Fourth Vice-President of the European Parliament
In office
30 July 2004 – 14 July 2009
PresidentJosep Borrell
Hans-Gert Pöttering
Succeeded byMiguel Ángel Martínez Martínez
Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament
In office
16 September 1997 – 14 December 2001
Preceded byTom Spencer
Succeeded byJonathan Evans
Parliamentary offices
Member of the European Parliament
for Yorkshire and the Humber
In office
10 June 1999 – 2 July 2014
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byJane Collins
Member of the European Parliament
for North Yorkshire
In office
9 June 1994 – 10 June 1999
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Member of the European Parliament
for York
In office
14 June 1984 – 9 June 1994
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born (1949-08-15) 15 August 1949 (age 74)
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
Political partyNon-party 2019 - present Liberal Democrats (2010–2019) Ind 2009-2010
Conservative (1967–2009)
SpouseHenrietta McMillan-Scott

McMillan-Scott was leader of then 36 Conservative MEPs 1997–2001, one of the largest-ever UK delegations. He renegotiated the terms of their membership of the majority centrist European People's Party (EPP) group in 1999. David Cameron, the UK premier, launched the Conservative-led nationalist successor, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group after the European election that year. However, McMillan-Scott refused to join the ECR[2] and sat as an Independent and Liberal Democrat until 2014. In the 2014 election he lost his seat as an MEP.

McMillan-Scott was elected Patron of the non-party European Movement UK, a pro-EU membership organisation founded by Winston Churchill, at its London AGM in 2014.[3] Since 2017 he has coordinated a forum of operational pro-European organisations known as Where Next for Brexit?[4] now renamed Pro EU Forum UK. This was the stakeholder forum for the Grassroots Coordinating Group[5] set up by former MPs Chuka Umunna and Anna Soubry to argue for a second referendum on Brexit and is now 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 publicly for a second referendum.

Background McMillan-Scott is a lifelong pro-European.[6] Following David Cameron's decision to withdraw the Conservative MEPs from the centrist 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.[7] The new group was described by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg as "a bunch of nutters, homophobes, anti-Semites and climate change deniers".[8] In July 2009 McMillan-Scott successfully stood as the first-ever independent vice-president, against the nominee of the ECR Group, Polish MEP Michał Kamiński, criticising Kamiński's alleged past links to extremism, confirmed inter alia by the Daily Telegraph.[9] He is the only vice-president to have been elected without an official party candidature.

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.[10] He then sat as ALDE Vice-President of the European Parliament.[11] In January 2012, he was re-elected as vice-president for the fourth time.[12] 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.

Early life edit

McMillan-Scott was born 15 August 1949 in Cambridge, England,[13][14] 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.[15] 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[14][15] 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 edit

McMillan-Scott was elected as the MEP for York from 1984 to 1994,[16] then MEP for North Yorkshire from 1994 to 1999,[16] and an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber from 1999 until 2014.[17][18][19][20]

Roles and responsibilities edit

 
McMillan-Scott (centre)

McMillan-Scott was leader of the British Conservative MEPs between September 1997 and December 2001, and attended the Shadow Cabinet on European issues.[14] On 23 July 2004 he was elected fourth of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament.[14][21] He was re-elected a vice-president in 2007, 2009 and 2012.[21] McMillan-Scott's special responsibilities as vice-president included relations with national EU parliaments[14] and the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly,[22] which brings together 280 MPs from the EU, North Africa and the Middle East.[23] 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] 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.[14][24]

Awards and prizes edit

Medal of Honour edit

McMillan-Scott was presented in September 2013 with the Medal of Honour[25] 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 edit

McMillan-Scott won the top award, for "Outstanding Contribution" in the 2012 MEP Awards[26] 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 edit

Democracy and human rights edit

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, McMillan-Scott founded the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR),[27] to facilitate the development of democracy and civil society in the ex-Soviet bloc[28][better source needed] countries, and which is now directed towards the reforming Arab world and countries resisting reform such as China, Cuba and Russia.[15] 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,[29] 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.[30]

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.[31] 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.[32][33] 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.[34] In the event, the Presidents of the European Parliament and European Commission boycotted the Games, as did the EU's external affairs Commissioner.[34]

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.[35]

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 edit

 
McMillan-Scott and Ethan Gutmann in a press conference, 2009

McMillan-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."[36] He met many former prisoners[37] and published accounts of their torture.[38][39]

He campaigned against organ harvesting[40] of Falun Gong in China.[36][41] 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".[42] Ethan Gutmann interviewed over 100 witnesses and estimated that 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008.[43][44][45][46]

Arab world edit

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.[47] 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.[48]

Children's rights edit

McMillan-Scott campaigns for improved children's rights across the EU and has dealt with a number of cross-frontier child abduction cases.[49] 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.[citation needed] France has an identical system but other countries, including the UK, rely on a patchwork of police schemes and children's charities.

Anti-fraud edit

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.[50]

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.[51][52] He has 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.[53]

Single Seat of the European Parliament in Brussels edit

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,[54] aims 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.[55]

Sustainable food edit

Since 2008 McMillan-Scott has eaten no meat[56] because of its alleged effect on climate change and in December 2009 invited Sir Paul McCartney to a conference called Less Meat = Less Heat,[57] jointly with Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.[58] 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,[59] a campaign for a sustainable food policy in the EU to replace the wasteful Common Agricultural Policy.

Leaving the Conservative Party edit

Before the European elections of June 1999, the British Conservative MEPs were allied members of the European People's Party (EPP).[60] 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.[60] 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.[61][62]

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.[63] 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.[64]

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,[65][66] after discovering Kamiński's past links to an extremist group in Poland.[9] As a result, the Conservative whip was withdrawn.[65][66][67] McMillan-Scott was then seated as a non-attached (Non-Inscrit) MEP in the European Parliament,[68] though he remained a member of the British Conservative Party.[68]

On 10 August 2009, William Hague wrote a letter to McMillan-Scott, described by the ConservativeHome website as "humiliating".[69] 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".[70] 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.[71] The vilification of McMillan-Scott by the Conservative Party included the alteration of Wikipedia 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.[72]

The rise of the right edit

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.[73] Through his family's background, McMillan-Scott was alarmed at what he saw as the rise of disguised extremism and forms of neo-fascism.[74] 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.[75] 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 edit

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.[10] 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".[76]

UK Parliament candidacies edit

At the 2015 general election, McMillan-Scott was the Liberal Democrat 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. He came third with 9% of the vote.

Personal life edit

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 edit

  • , Yorkshire Post, 13 June 2006

Documentaries edit

He appeared in Transmission 6–10 (2009),[77] and Red Reign: The Bloody Harvest of China's Prisoners (2013).[78]

References edit

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  76. ^ . Libdems.org.uk. Archived from the original on 26 October 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  77. ^ "Transmission 6–10: 1st Half", (52 minutes) YouTube, 20 February 2011
  78. ^ "Red Reign trailer", (4 minutes) YouTube, 30 July 2013

External links edit

  • Official website
  • Profile at European Parliament website
  • Killed for Organs: China's Secret State Transplant Business (2012) YouTube video, 8 minutes
  • European Movement
  • Fish Fight 29 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  • Single Seat

edward, mcmillan, scott, born, august, 1949, british, politician, member, european, parliament, yorkshire, humber, constituency, from, 1984, until, 2014, last, longest, serving, vice, presidents, european, parliament, 2004, 2014, held, human, rights, democracy. Edward McMillan Scott born 15 August 1949 is a British politician He was a pro EU Member of the European Parliament MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber constituency from 1984 until 2014 He was the last and one of the longest serving UK Vice Presidents of the European Parliament 2004 2014 He held its Human Rights and Democracy portfolio In 1992 he founded the EU s Instrument for Human Rights and Democracy EIDHR now the EU s Global Europe Human Rights amp Democracy Programme 1 which remain s the world s largest dedicated programme Edward McMillan ScottEighth Vice President of the European ParliamentIn office 17 January 2012 1 July 2014PresidentMartin SchulzPreceded byIsabelle DurantSucceeded bySylvie GuillaumeTwelfth Vice President of the European ParliamentIn office 14 July 2009 17 January 2012PresidentJerzy BuzekPreceded byDiana WallisSucceeded byOldrich VlasakFourth Vice President of the European ParliamentIn office 30 July 2004 14 July 2009PresidentJosep BorrellHans Gert PotteringSucceeded byMiguel Angel Martinez MartinezLeader of the Conservatives in the European ParliamentIn office 16 September 1997 14 December 2001Preceded byTom SpencerSucceeded byJonathan EvansParliamentary officesMember of the European Parliamentfor Yorkshire and the HumberIn office 10 June 1999 2 July 2014Preceded byConstituency establishedSucceeded byJane CollinsMember of the European Parliamentfor North YorkshireIn office 9 June 1994 10 June 1999Preceded byConstituency establishedSucceeded byConstituency abolishedMember of the European Parliamentfor YorkIn office 14 June 1984 9 June 1994Preceded byConstituency establishedSucceeded byConstituency abolishedPersonal detailsBorn 1949 08 15 15 August 1949 age 74 Cambridge Cambridgeshire EnglandPolitical partyNon party 2019 present Liberal Democrats 2010 2019 Ind 2009 2010 Conservative 1967 2009 SpouseHenrietta McMillan ScottMcMillan Scott was leader of then 36 Conservative MEPs 1997 2001 one of the largest ever UK delegations He renegotiated the terms of their membership of the majority centrist European People s Party EPP group in 1999 David Cameron the UK premier launched the Conservative led nationalist successor the European Conservatives and Reformists ECR group after the European election that year However McMillan Scott refused to join the ECR 2 and sat as an Independent and Liberal Democrat until 2014 In the 2014 election he lost his seat as an MEP McMillan Scott was elected Patron of the non party European Movement UK a pro EU membership organisation founded by Winston Churchill at its London AGM in 2014 3 Since 2017 he has coordinated a forum of operational pro European organisations known as Where Next for Brexit 4 now renamed Pro EU Forum UK This was the stakeholder forum for the Grassroots Coordinating Group 5 set up by former MPs Chuka Umunna and Anna Soubry to argue for a second referendum on Brexit and is now 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 publicly for a second referendum Background McMillan Scott is a lifelong pro European 6 Following David Cameron s decision to withdraw the Conservative MEPs from the centrist 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 7 The new group was described by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg as a bunch of nutters homophobes anti Semites and climate change deniers 8 In July 2009 McMillan Scott successfully stood as the first ever independent vice president against the nominee of the ECR Group Polish MEP Michal Kaminski criticising Kaminski s alleged past links to extremism confirmed inter alia by the Daily Telegraph 9 He is the only vice president to have been elected without an official party candidature 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 10 He then sat as ALDE Vice President of the European Parliament 11 In January 2012 he was re elected as vice president for the fourth time 12 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 Contents 1 Early life 2 European Parliament 2 1 Roles and responsibilities 3 Awards and prizes 3 1 Medal of Honour 3 2 Outstanding Contribution 4 Campaigning 4 1 Democracy and human rights 4 2 Falun Gong 4 3 Arab world 4 4 Children s rights 4 5 Anti fraud 4 6 Single Seat of the European Parliament in Brussels 4 7 Sustainable food 5 Leaving the Conservative Party 5 1 The rise of the right 6 Joining the Liberal Democrats 7 UK Parliament candidacies 8 Personal life 9 Articles 10 Documentaries 11 References 12 External linksEarly life editMcMillan Scott was born 15 August 1949 in Cambridge England 13 14 one of seven children of the late Walter an architect and the late Elisabeth McMillan Scott nee Hudson He was educated privately by Dominican friars 15 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 14 15 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 editMcMillan Scott was elected as the MEP for York from 1984 to 1994 16 then MEP for North Yorkshire from 1994 to 1999 16 and an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber from 1999 until 2014 17 18 19 20 Roles and responsibilities edit nbsp McMillan Scott centre McMillan Scott was leader of the British Conservative MEPs between September 1997 and December 2001 and attended the Shadow Cabinet on European issues 14 On 23 July 2004 he was elected fourth of the 14 Vice Presidents of the European Parliament 14 21 He was re elected a vice president in 2007 2009 and 2012 21 McMillan Scott s special responsibilities as vice president included relations with national EU parliaments 14 and the Euro Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly 22 which brings together 280 MPs from the EU North Africa and the Middle East 23 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 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 14 24 Awards and prizes editMedal of Honour edit McMillan Scott was presented in September 2013 with the Medal of Honour 25 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 edit McMillan Scott won the top award for Outstanding Contribution in the 2012 MEP Awards 26 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 editDemocracy and human rights edit After the fall of the Berlin Wall McMillan Scott founded the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights EIDHR 27 to facilitate the development of democracy and civil society in the ex Soviet bloc 28 better source needed countries and which is now directed towards the reforming Arab world and countries resisting reform such as China Cuba and Russia 15 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 etat 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 29 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 30 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 31 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 32 33 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 34 In the event the Presidents of the European Parliament and European Commission boycotted the Games as did the EU s external affairs Commissioner 34 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 35 In October 2006 McMillan Scott visited Cuba where he met Sakharov prize winners the Ladies in White and the late Oswaldo Paya as well as other dissidents He has since encouraged their campaign for political freedoms Falun Gong edit Main articles Persecution of Falun Gong and Organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China nbsp McMillan Scott and Ethan Gutmann in a press conference 2009McMillan 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 36 He met many former prisoners 37 and published accounts of their torture 38 39 He campaigned against organ harvesting 40 of Falun Gong in China 36 41 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 42 Ethan Gutmann interviewed over 100 witnesses and estimated that 65 000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008 43 44 45 46 Arab world edit 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 47 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 48 Children s rights edit McMillan Scott campaigns for improved children s rights across the EU and has dealt with a number of cross frontier child abduction cases 49 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 citation needed France has an identical system but other countries including the UK rely on a patchwork of police schemes and children s charities Anti fraud edit 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 50 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 51 52 He has 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 53 Single Seat of the European Parliament in Brussels edit 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 54 aims 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 55 Sustainable food edit Since 2008 McMillan Scott has eaten no meat 56 because of its alleged effect on climate change and in December 2009 invited Sir Paul McCartney to a conference called Less Meat Less Heat 57 jointly with Dr Rajendra Pachauri chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 58 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 59 a campaign for a sustainable food policy in the EU to replace the wasteful Common Agricultural Policy Leaving the Conservative Party editBefore the European elections of June 1999 the British Conservative MEPs were allied members of the European People s Party EPP 60 After the election jointly with the then leader of the Conservative Party William Hague McMillan Scott negotiated the Malaga 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 60 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 61 62 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 63 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 64 In July 2009 he successfully stood for re election as Vice President of the European Parliament against the nominee of the new ECR group Michal Kaminski a Polish MEP from the Law and Justice Party 65 66 after discovering Kaminski s past links to an extremist group in Poland 9 As a result the Conservative whip was withdrawn 65 66 67 McMillan Scott was then seated as a non attached Non Inscrit MEP in the European Parliament 68 though he remained a member of the British Conservative Party 68 On 10 August 2009 William Hague wrote a letter to McMillan Scott described by the ConservativeHome website as humiliating 69 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 70 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 71 The vilification of McMillan Scott by the Conservative Party included the alteration of Wikipedia pages in an attempt to airbrush the embarrassing past of Michal Kaminski 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 72 The rise of the right edit 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 73 Through his family s background McMillan Scott was alarmed at what he saw as the rise of disguised extremism and forms of neo fascism 74 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 75 McMillan Scott s rejection of David Cameron s new ECR group and his successful stand as an independent vice president against Michal Kaminski finally led to his break with the Conservative Party Joining the Liberal Democrats editOn 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 10 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 76 UK Parliament candidacies editAt the 2015 general election McMillan Scott was the Liberal Democrat 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 He came third with 9 of the vote Personal life editMcMillan 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 edit Secret atrocities of Chinese regime Yorkshire Post 13 June 2006Documentaries editHe appeared in Transmission 6 10 2009 77 and Red Reign The Bloody Harvest of China s Prisoners 2013 78 References edit Global Europe Human Rights amp Democracy Programme Retrieved 27 April 2022 Cameron s ransom The Economist 31 October 2009 Retrieved 27 April 2022 Edward Macmillan Scott Together For Britain and For A People s Say on Brexit Stratford on Avon Retrieved 27 March 2020 It s not a done deal inside the battle to stop Brexit The Guardian 28 April 2018 Retrieved 18 November 2020 Groups opposed to hard Brexit join forces under Chuka Umunna The Guardian 1 February 2018 Retrieved 25 November 2020 Edward McMillan Scott MEP writes In Europe 40 years on what next Libdemvoice org 16 January 2013 Retrieved 27 January 2014 Banks Martin 25 June 2009 Tory MEP voices real concern over new European grouping The Telegraph Retrieved 28 July 2014 White Michael 22 April 2010 Leaders TV debate Nick Clegg Gordon Brown and David Cameron rated Politics The Guardian London Retrieved 21 January 2014 a b Waterfield Bruno 15 July 2009 Tory MEPs led by Pole with extremist past London Telegraph Retrieved 21 January 2014 a b Ex Tory MEP Edward McMillan Scott joins Lib Dems BBC News BBC 12 March 2010 Retrieved 12 March 2010 The faces of the European Parliament 2009 2011 Publications Office of the European Union April 2010 ISBN 978 92 823 3043 2 14 Vice Presidents and 5 Quaestors of the European Parliament elected European Parliament 18 January 2012 Retrieved 31 January 2012 MEP profile Edward McMILLAN SCOTT European Parliament Retrieved 30 July 2009 a b c d e f Edward McMillan Scott Doncaster Conservatives Retrieved 30 July 2009 permanent dead link a b c Profile of Edward McMillan Scott Edward McMillan Scott Archived from the original on 9 August 2016 Retrieved 30 July 2009 a b Elections to the European Parliament 1979 99 Constituencies in England part 2 Merseyside East Z United Kingdom Election Results David Boothroyd Retrieved 30 July 2009 Yorkshire and the Humber BBC News 25 May 2014 Retrieved 25 May 2014 1999 Election Results Yorkshire and Humber UK Office of the European Parliament Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 Retrieved 30 July 2009 2004 Election Results Yorkshire and Humber UK Office of the European Parliament Archived from the original on 8 July 2009 Retrieved 30 July 2009 Results of 2009 European elections in the UK UK Office of the European Parliament Archived from the original on 7 June 2009 Retrieved 30 July 2009 a b Election of the President of the European Parliament European Parliament 5 December 2007 Retrieved 30 July 2009 EP Delegation to the Euro Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly European Parliament 1 September 2008 Archived from the original on 31 December 2008 Retrieved 28 July 2014 The Euro Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly EMPA European Parliament 18 May 2009 Archived from the original on 26 February 2009 Retrieved 30 July 2009 Edward chairs two largest Palestine MEP poll missions Edward McMillan Scott Archived from the original on 3 March 2016 Retrieved 31 July 2009 22 9 2013 EIUC awards EIUC Medal of Honour to EP Vice President and signs Letter of Exchange with the Council of Europe EIUC Archived from the original on 26 February 2014 Retrieved 21 January 2014 MEP awards 2012 winners announced theparliament com 26 September 2012 Retrieved 21 January 2014 European Instrument for Democracy amp Human Rights EIDHR Ec europa eu 17 February 2012 Retrieved 21 January 2014 Member of the European Parliament Edward McMillan Scott MEP Keighley amp Ilkley Conservatives Retrieved 31 July 2009 Noticeboard European Parliament s Democracy Caucus Archived from the original on 4 October 2008 Retrieved 28 July 2014 cs cestina Texts adopted Thursday 29 March 2012 European Endowment for Democracy P7 TA 2012 0113 Europarl europa eu Retrieved 21 January 2014 Ai Weiwei tells Edward McMillan Scott MEP Beijing regime is finished YouTube Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 Retrieved 21 January 2014 MEPs demand IOC assessment on China s human rights record on eve of Olympic year Edward McMillan Scott MEP Press release EPP Group in the European Parliament 13 December 2007 Archived from the original on 8 December 2011 Retrieved 2 August 2009 Reform in China the world s biggest country Edward McMillan Scott Archived from the original on 17 March 2010 Retrieved 2 August 2009 a b Welcome to BoycottBeijing eu homepage BoycottBeijing eu Archived from the original on 15 December 2007 Retrieved 2 August 2009 50th Anniversary of Democracy by Tibetan in Exile PDF in Tibetan Archived from the original PDF on 10 August 2014 Retrieved 28 July 2014 a b Allard Tom 16 August 2006 Call to UN to probe Falun Gong genocide claims The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 16 March 2015 Edward McMillan Scott MEP interviews China torture camp survivor YouTube 13 September 2007 Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 Retrieved 11 February 2015 McMillan Scott Edward Hearsay evidence taken at a meeting in Beijing China on 21 May 2006 PDF European Commission Retrieved 16 March 2015 McMillan Scott Edward UN torture report BoycottBeijing EU Archived from the original on 15 December 2007 Retrieved 27 January 2014 David Kilgour David Matas 6 July 2006 revised 31 January 2007 An Independent Investigation into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China free in 22 languages organharvestinvestigation net Peter Westmore 2 September 2006 Bid to end China s organ harvesting Archived 1 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine News Weekly Australia Killed for Organs China s Secret State Transplant Business 2012 YouTube video 8 minutes Jay Nordlinger 25 August 2014 Face The Slaughter The Slaughter Mass Killings Organ Harvesting and China s Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem by Ethan Gutmann Archived 7 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine National Review Viv Young 11 August 2014 The Slaughter Mass Killings Organ Harvesting and China s Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem New York Journal of Books Ethan Gutmann August 2014 The Slaughter Mass Killings Organ Harvesting and China s Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem 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 Turnbull Barbara 21 October 2014 Q amp A Author and analyst Ethan Gutmann discusses China s illegal organ trade The Toronto Star Retrieved 16 March 2015 Arab spring one year on Edward McMillan Scott theparliament com 6 February 2012 Retrieved 21 January 2014 Press Release Alde eu 24 September 2012 Archived from the original on 11 December 2012 Retrieved 21 January 2014 Children s champion Edward McMillan Scott Archived from the original on 17 March 2010 Retrieved 31 July 2009 Downfall of the Commission Democracy Live BBC 31 October 2009 Retrieved 29 September 2010 About Edward emcmillanscott Archived from the original on 31 December 2013 Retrieved 27 January 2014 Directive 94 47 EC of the European Parliament and the Council EUR Lex Publications Office of the European Union 26 October 1994 Retrieved 1 August 2009 Property Rights Edward McMillan Scott Archived from the original on 17 March 2010 Retrieved 1 August 2009 Home SingleSeat eu a campaign for a single seat for the European Parliament SingleSeat eu 17 January 2014 Retrieved 21 January 2014 SingleSeat eu Resources SingleSeat eu a campaign for a single seat for the European Parliament SingleSeat eu Archived from the original on 13 December 2013 Retrieved 28 July 2014 McMillan Scott Edward 12 March 2009 Why I m challenging Boris to go meat free The Guardian London Guardian News and Media Limited Retrieved 22 January 2011 Owen Jonathan 29 November 2009 Sir Paul to tell EU Less meat means less heat Climate Change Environment The Independent London Retrieved 21 January 2014 cs cestina 1 December 2009 Global warming less meat less heat Europarl europa eu Retrieved 21 January 2014 home EU Food Sense Archived from the original on 20 June 2015 Retrieved 21 January 2014 a b UK UK Politics Tories leaving Europe s EPP group BBC News 11 March 2009 Retrieved 27 January 2014 European Conservatives and Reformists form New Grouping in the European Parliament Scribd Press release European Conservatives and Reformists 22 June 2009 Retrieved 1 August 2009 Conservative MEPs form new group BBC News Online BBC 22 June 2009 Retrieved 1 August 2009 Vote ForChange European Election Manifesto Conservative Party 2009 Archived from the original PDF on 29 June 2011 Retrieved 2 August 2009 Banks Martin 25 June 2009 Tory MEP voices real concern over new European grouping The Daily Telegraph London Retrieved 1 August 2009 a b Defiant Tory MEP loses party whip BBC News Online BBC 15 July 2009 Retrieved 1 August 2009 a b 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 a b 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 2013External links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Edward McMillan Scott nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edward McMillan Scott 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 SeatEuropean ParliamentNew constituency Member of the European Parliamentfor York1984 1994 Constituency abolishedMember of the European Parliamentfor North Yorkshire1994 1999Member of the European Parliamentfor Yorkshire and the Humber1999 2014 Succeeded byJane CollinsParty political officesPreceded byTom Spencer Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament1997 2001 Succeeded byJonathan EvansPolitical officesPreceded by Fourth Vice President of the European Parliament2004 2009 Succeeded byMiguel Angel Martinez MartinezPreceded byDiana Wallis Twelfth Vice President of the European Parliament2009 2012 Succeeded byOldrich VlasakPreceded byIsabelle Durant Eighth Vice President of the European Parliament2012 2014 Succeeded bySylvie Guillaume Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Edward McMillan Scott amp oldid 1213194314, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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