UKIP: Mike Nattrass will not be seeking re-election in 2014

From the Sutton Coldfield Observer:

I'm ready to stand down, says Sutton's anti-EU MEP

AN MEP from Sutton who has opposed the UK's membership of the European Union is to stand down after ten years in office.

Mike Nattrass, who has represented the West Midlands since 2004, has confirmed he will not be standing at the next European parliamentary elections in 2014 but has vowed to continue his opposition to the "EU asylum" which he describes as a "very expensive and unnecessary political union".

Mr Nattrass said of his European parliamentary colleagues he said: "Frankly I would not elect them to run a whelk stall, never mind Europe and certainly not my country of which I am very proud to defend.

"The British people were told in the 1970s that the EU was a trade agreement, not a political takeover.

"Local people are taxed to pay for all this. Local Authorities have to comply with all the EU red tape.

"Local money is taken from police, hospitals and schools to underwrite EU disasters like Greece and Portugal.

"This is a local issue and yet those are faceless foreign MEPs who take the money from your local people who will never know or vote for them."

Sutton's MEP said only a few countries pay in to the EU, while the others take out, with the UK being the second highest contributor "because we know how to collect tax".

Despite his party's failure to force a referendum on the UK's EU membership, Mr Nattrass said he was proud to have seen UKIP's support increase nationally and in the West Midlands.

In 2009 his party received the second highest number of votes beating the Labour party into third place. Two UKIP MEPs were elected to represent the West Midlands at the last Euro elections.

"I have increased support for the quest for independence from the EU by explaining and exposing the facts," Mr Nattrass said.

"UKIP came first in many places including Walsall and second throughout the country. At each election the Conservatives promise a cure for the EU but until we have a referendum for the UK people I shall fight on."

In 2014, when he leaves office, Mr Nattrass said he plans to assist the objective of Britain's withdrawal from the EU as a grassroots UKIP member "but without the flights to Brussels and Strasbourg".

"I will continue to expose the endless red tape which is blocking or closing local West Midlands businesses," he said. "I will expose financial corruption in the EU and the financial waste in complying with EU rules and I will continue to defend UK traditions including herbal remedies, apple varieties, weights and measures, silver hall marks or the unique way we make things."

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