Tory Euro leader says Conservatives must reject Euro-scepticism

Tom Spencer said the new leader must not seek victory at the next general election on the basis of trying to "frighten" people about Europe.

He told the BBC's Today programme: "It is absolutely crucial that the Conservative Party - those Conservative MPs who are currently choosing a leader and those people who put forward their names to be leader - recognise exactly what the British people did on May 1."

"They rebutted the assertion that has been there in the Press for several years now that Euro-scepticism provided an easy bucket for votes into which any party could dip. The British people at that election rejected Euro-scepticism."

"The position of any government now, whether it is Conservative or Labour, has to be that we are as a country committed to constructive engagement in this process."

Asked what advice he would have for any prospective Conservative leader he said "When we come back to power in four-and-a-half years' time, it is going to have to be on the basis of not seeking to frighten people about Britain's involvement in Europe but seeking to develop it in a way that is competitive and takes the rest of Europe with us"

Mr Spencer was interviewed with Pauline Green, the leader of the Socialist MEPs. She re-iterated Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's assertion that "Everybody recognises that the Labour government will fight hard for British interests in Europe... the difference is that we're committed to constructive engagement in that European process, unhindered, like the last government, by a divided party."

Ms Green said there was an outburst of cheering and applause amongst the socialist MEPs when the Labour government was announced. It was prompted, she said by "the change in attitude and in tone from this new labour government to europe."

Conservative Euro leader Mr Spencer, recognised the change in feeling in the Strasbourg, but said it was not specifically to do with a Labour victory: "The excitement and euphoria this week in europe" he said "has not been about the detail of the labour position, but relief that at last there's a government with a majority big enough to take decisions in Europe - Something John Major never had the privilege of because of the way Euro-sceptics from his back benches constrained what he was going to do."