UK minister bottles out of MEPs' questions

12.00.00am GMT Wed 16th Nov 2005

A British Liberal Democrat MEP is complaining that the UK's Europe minister Douglas Alexander is dodging questions put to him when he finds it convenient.

Answering on behalf of the Council of Ministers at European Parliament question time, he declined to answer 2 questions put to him, on the grounds that he had no competence as EU Presidency. These were why EU Member States including the UK had failed to sign a European convention against human trafficking, and whether the UK's policy of separating couples on immigration grounds breached European law on family rights and free movement.

Baroness Sarah Ludford, MEP for London and Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman said:

"He cherry-picks when it suits him; both the questions were perfectly valid as European issues. He was quite happy to expound in a previous reply about UK achievements in catching alcohol smugglers, but when feeling on the defensive about human rights, he plays the opt-out card and says he can't comment on UK or other Member State practices."

"This has been something of a pattern in Mr Alexander's form at question time. I will just have to tell my constituents that abroad as well as at home, you can't get a straight answer out of New Labour. "

Notes

For the texts of these exchanges please go to the "speeches" section of the website.