British MEPs elected to the European Parliament next week should have no restrictions placed on their work, even though Brexit is unresolved, said Jan Vincent Rostowski, a leading candidate for Change UK.
The economist and former deputy prime minister of Poland is standing as number 2 on the new pro-EU party’s list in London. Asked if U.K. legislators should take a backseat stance and refrain from voting for the new Commission president because they may only hold their seats for a few months, Rostowski pushed back strongly.
“We’re certainly going to vote. We’re certainly going to vote. If we’re there, we’re certainly going to vote. What on earth do they imagine. For God’s sake,” Rostowski told POLITICO. “The treaties are quite clear on that and the Commission has been quite clear … that rights cannot be reduced.”
He said British MEPs should also be considered for key roles in the legislature. “I don’t think we could accept a situation where British MEPs were not allowed to stand for committee chairmanships or rapporteurships,” he said, adding that, if elected, he was interested in working on committees dealing with economy and finance as well as civil liberties, justice and home affairs.
Voters next week will decide whether his party has it or not.
Rostowski said his first task though was to convince people in Brussels and across the Continent that the U.K. needs more time to reconsider Brexit. “Britain really needs to be given as much time as it needs. Because it has been a discovery process,” he said. Change UK backs a second referendum to keep the U.K. inside the EU.
The former Polish finance minister rejected the notion that Change UK and other parties backing Remain had failed to coordinate effectively. He said there was not enough time to get around legal constraints on creating a joint list for the European election. And he accused the Labour party of “sabotaging” a plan to field a single Remain candidate for the upcoming by-election in Peterborough.
“I think we’re very careful not to attack anybody of the other Remain parties,” he said, before taking a swipe at the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable. That party also backs a second referendum and has benefited from a surge in the polls while Change UK has failed to take off ahead of the European election next week.
“I’ve got nothing against the Lib Dems, but I think Change UK is something much more exciting,” he said. “And now I’ll say something which might be taken by somebody as not nice, but really each of those leaders of Change UK — Heidi [Allen], Anna [Soubry] and Chuka [Umunna] — each of them on their own is more exciting than Vince Cable.”
“Politics is also about,” Rostowski clicked his fingers as if to demonstrate the word, “pizazz. Isn’t it?”
Voters next week will decide whether his party has it or not.