US to hold Tories to task over EU allies
Hillary Clinton to express concern at Conservative allies in EU parliament in meeting with William Hague
Wednesday, 21, Oct 2009 09:41
By Matthew Champion.
Hillary Clinton will warn William Hague of US unease over the Conservative party's European allies when the two meet later today.
The Obama administration is increasingly concerned at David Cameron's decision to ally his party with far-right parties with links to anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism in eastern Europe.
Mr Cameron pulled his party out of the mainstream European People's party in the EU parliament following a pledge to euro-sceptics within his party when running for the Tory leadership.
But the new grouping, European Conservatives and Reformists, includes Michael Kaminski's Law and Justice party (Poland) and Roberts Zile's For Fatherland and Freedom (Latvia), sparking unease at home and abroad over the Tory party leader's motives on the continent.
Mr Kaminski has previously faced allegations of anti-Semitism, while members of the For Fatherland and Freedom party routinely attended memorials for Latvian units of Adolf Hitler's Waffen-SS.
Under pressure from the influential Jewish lobby, US secretary of state Mrs Clinton will personally express concern at the alliance when she meets shadow foreign secretary Mr Hague in Washington today.
"I think Churchill would turn in his grave," George Schwab, president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and holocaust survivor, told the Guardian.
"It is an insult to the tradition of this great party."
A European diplomatic source added: "It is clear that this US administration does not believe that Britain's relations with Europe and the EU are a zero sum game - the wrong-headed idea that if you are close to one you can't be close to the other. The US wants Britain to be fully engaged in the EU."