Brexit: Tears and aid because the UK’s MEPs bid farewell

Because the clock strikes 23:00 GMT on Friday, 31 January, the 73 MEPs who symbolize Nice Britain and Northern Eire within the European Parliament will bid farewell to their roles.

For a few of them, there’s solely delight and aid because the UK approaches Brexit. For others, there have been tears and goodbye hugs.

“How I’m feeling is how any person feels when you might have a redundancy and a bereavement on the similar time,” says Inexperienced MEP Molly Scott Cato, who has represented south-west England since 2014.

It has been a tearful goodbye and a “grim, grim week”, she says, throughout a break from packing up her Strasbourg workplace.

However, in distinction, Brexit couldn’t have come quickly sufficient for Jake Pugh.

“We’re delighted,” says the Brexit Social gathering MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber. “We had been employed to be fired.”

He’s considered one of 29 Brexit Social gathering MEPs who had been elected in final Might’s European elections – a vote many thought of as affirmation of the UK’s need to depart the EU.

The ballot had additionally introduced hope, nonetheless, for pro-EU Liberal Democrat MEPs who additionally loved a profitable marketing campaign, successful 16 seats. They entered the parliament sporting yellow “cease Brexit” t-shirts.

9 months on there stays a transparent divide over Brexit among the many MEPs, however the politicians seem united a few feeling of satisfaction at what they’ve achieved.

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“There was a lot heat and comradeship,” says Labour’s Seb Dance of his closing week in Strasbourg. “Most individuals are fairly unhappy about the entire thing.”

The Labour MEP for London had beforehand campaigned for one more vote on the UK’s membership of the EU.

‘Actually grateful’

Talking to the BBC as he dashes between trains in Paris, he says he’s happy with the issues that “by no means obtained the headlines” throughout his six years within the function.

He highlights his involvement within the European Parliament’s particular inquiry committee into the Volkswagen emissions scandal.

Ms Scott Cato says she is happy with her work on the difficulty of sustainable finance and new EU restrictions on the usage of antibiotics in farms.

The European Parliament is a “actual parliament”, she says, expressing her frustration with the UK’s first-past-the-post system – which signifies that events like hers wrestle to get individuals elected in Westminster.

“We do not get the parliamentary illustration we should always have.”

Inexperienced Social gathering colleague Magid Magid says there’s a sense of unhappiness, however he feels “really grateful and humble for this wonderful alternative”.

Mr Pugh says he “absolutely recognises there are MEPs with totally different political outlooks who’re unhappy to be leaving” however, he says, the EU “has some actual points”.

“Nevertheless cynical I used to be concerning the EU earlier than I obtained right here, it’s method worse than I believed,” he says.

The Eurozone is a “catastrophe”, he says, and MEPs in Brussels and Strasbourg “are very distant from their citizens”.

Brexit is “actually excellent news for the youthful era”, he says, including that he has pursued Brexit for them, so younger individuals can get pleasure from the identical freedom he had rising up.

It is clear that view is shared amongst his colleagues, quite a few whom shared their delight on Twitter at leaving the parliament constructing in Strasbourg for the ultimate time.

Belinda de Lucy says leaving no extra taxpayers’ cash will likely be wasted “on this ridiculous self-importance mission”, whereas Ben Habib says he is not going to give the parliament “a second thought” after leaving.