Cornwall loses its voice in Europe

The failure of former Cornish MEP Robin Teverson to keep his seat in the European Parliament has deprived Cornwall of a local voice to speak up for its concerns.

The grouping of the original parliamentary constituencies into 11 electoral regions could have serious repercussions for Corn-wall.

The South West Region, which takes in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Somerset, Wilts-hire, Gloucestershire, Dorset and the City of Bristol, has a population of 3.75 million people.

They are now represented by seven MEPs, the nearest living some 50 miles from Caradon, and including one from the North-west of England.

'Losing Robin is a terrible loss,' said MP for South East Cornwall Colin Breed. 'Cornwall now has no representative at the European level. Robin was a great campaigner for Cornwall bringing Objective One funding as well as raising Cornwall's profile.'

Truro and St Austell Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor was equally saddened, both by the low turn-out and by the impact of the change in the voting system.

'Since Conservative, Labour and the UKIP all failed to put up Cornish candidates, the loss of Robin Teverson MEP is a particular problem for Cornwall,' he said.

We warned that people staying at home in Cornwall would leave the County without its representative in Brussels - with less than 10 voting, that has now happened.

'Robin Teverson kicked off the campaign that won £300m Objective One money for Cornwall - it is particularly sad in that circumstance to see him lose his seat.

It wasn't that people voted against us - it was simply that they didn't vote at all.'

Leading Conservative spokesman for Cornwall and former MP for St Ives David Harris was, understandably, in more buoyant mood.

'We had a conservative majority in all five Cornish constituencies,' he said, 'and now have four Conservative MEPs for the South West led by a Cornishwoman, Caroline Jackson, who was born in Penzance.'

Robin Teverson, who lives in Metherell, had held the seat for four years.