What Britain’s general election looks like from the EU parliament in Brussels

Europe Correspondent Jon Stone finds that the election means different things to different MEPs

Non-British MEPs see this time as an opportunity to get some of their other business done (AFP/Getty)

Britain has spent the past two years with its eyes firmly fixed on Brussels, following events in the EU capital with bated breath. The general election has changed that, and the country is again focusing inward – but Brussels has not disappeared, and work here still continues.

For non-British MEPs, the election is actually a relief – an opportunity to get some of their other business done instead of constantly discussing Britain’s departure. Many, even those who have been plugged firmly into the Brexit matrix, see the twists and turns of the plot as baffling.

“Nobody can even follow anymore what is happening,” says Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s colourful Brexit coordinator, who seems to have long given up on making predictions and is just waiting for the votes to be counted.

“I’m always saying if Netflix has to make a series about politics you cannot compete with what is happening on the ground.”

Like the House of Commons, the European parliament has to vote on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, but insists on doing so after Westminster. Thus, the election means Brexit is safely off the agenda here: in its place are discussions about Turkish drilling activities in EU waters, the rights of children, the situation in Bolivia, and the resurgence of Ebola in Africa – all standard European parliament fare.

But for British MEPs elected in May, the situation is disorientating. They were sent to Brussels not knowing how long they would be there for, and have tentatively had their political lives extended until next February thanks to last month’s extension of the deadline.

The UK’s culture of doorstep campaigning means many are expected to be faithful party soldiers back in the UK, and the representatives are having to balance their work in the EU capitals with their commitments back on Britain’s rainy streets.

Labour MEP Julie Ward tells The Independent that “every” MEP from her party is planning to be back in their home regions over the next month, “helping our friends and colleagues to get elected”. Labour sees its vast army of activists as its secret weapon, and Ward says she was one of 45,000 other people who went door knocking for the opposition party in the first weekend of the official campaign.

“This is the most important general election for decades. This is our chance to stop Boris Johnson’s destructive right-wing agenda and give the people a final say on Brexit,” she says. It’s very on-message, but it’s also the way Labour MEPs genuinely see the situation.

Guy Verhofstadt says the plot of Brexit is better than any series Netflix could come up with (EPA)

For some British MEPs the contest unfolding in the UK is even more close to home: Molly Scott Cato, a Green who represents southwest England in Brussels, is standing as a candidate for the Commons on 12 December, hoping to represent Stroud. The party had just one seat in the last parliament.

But the campaign is different to what she’s used to in the European elections – the Greens won seven seats in May – in part because the bloc’s voting system doesn’t exclude smaller parties in the same way as the one used for domestic UK elections does.

“Campaigning in a British general election is quite a shock after the proportional European elections,” she tells The Independent.

Campaigning in a British general election is quite a shock after the proportional European elections

Molly Scott Cato, Green MEP and Westminster candidate

“You come across concepts like marginal seats and safe seats – aka rotten boroughs – and discover the aggressive and tribal two-party politics that is the consequence of our first-past-the-post system.”

Scott Cato says other MEPs from her party will be supporting her with visits to the seat to complement her local activists. In 2017 Stroud was a tight marginal between Labour and the Conservatives, and the Greens hope to sail through the middle of the two parties on the back of dissatisfaction about Brexit.

The Liberal Democrats have stood down for her in the seat to give her a clear run as a Remain-supporting candidate, though critics have been quick to note that the sitting Labour MP David Drew, who she is running against, also supports a Final Say.

“My position as a Unite to Remain candidate is consistent with the cooperative approach to politics we enjoy in the European parliament – and with my role as an MEP,” Scott Cato says.

Different parties are reacting to the situation in different ways. There won’t be any Liberal Democrat MEPs standing as candidates at the election: the liberals decided earlier this year that it would send the wrong signal, because they intend to stop Brexit and thus keep their MEPs.

“I have no doubt this is the battle of our generation,” says Luisa Porritt, one of the Lib Dems’ newly enlarged caucus of 16 MEPs (up from just one in the previous session – a turnaround the party attributes to its staunch anti-Brexit position).

The London MEP says she has been “out knocking on doors all over the capital in recent weeks”, citing Richmond, Kensington and Camden as particular focuses.

The latest polls show a shift in the Remain vote back towards Labour and away from the Lib Dems, but Porritt is undeterred. She hopes that “the sea change we saw during the European elections” will continue and says voters she’s talked to “don’t trust Jeremy Corbyn on Brexit” and “can’t stand the idea of having someone as reckless as Boris Johnson as prime minister”.

“As a young MEP elected in May, I am determined to stop Brexit and secure a European future for Londoners. Millions of young people’s futures are on the line,” she adds.

Whatever happens on 12 December, the MEPs will be here until at least the new year. If the Tories win a majority as the polls currently suggest, Britain’s EU representatives will almost certainly be out of the job by the end of January: but a hung parliament or another result would mean that once again, they could be asked to stay for a bit longer. Or perhaps a lot longer.