Timothy Kirkhope resigns as leader of Tory MEPs

By Tim Montgomerie

Timothy Kirkhope faced an uphill battle to retain the leadership of Tory MEPs and has decided not to seek re-election.

Nominations for his successor close, I understand, on 9th November and the election will be held in Strasbourg on 23rd November.

3.30pm: Mr Kirkhope has written about his decision on the BlueBlog:

"I intend to focus my efforts on developing the ECR group further as its Deputy Chairman, working side-by-side with Michal Kaminski, our group Chairman. Our partnership has worked well and we intend to build on it so that we can continue to raise our profile and enhance our group’s policy-making machinery. Our group has coordinators on every committee, a committee chairman, a place at the Conference of Presidents (the ‘top table’ of the parliament), and two Prime Ministers in the European Council. Now we want to use that influence and skill to develop a clear positive policy framework for our group, which enables us to enact our founding Prague declaration. I still intend for our group to grow and I will be seeking new members to bolster our ranks."

Full blog here.