REDDITCH MP Karen Lumley is backing the campaign to save the taxpayer £1billion and end the practice of the European Parliament shuttling between Brussels and Strasbourg once a month at enormous expense and producing 20,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

According to the EU Treaties, Strasbourg is the official seat of the European Parliament and yet for most of the year, the Parliament meets in Brussels, where the other main EU Institutions are also based.

So once a month, thousands of people have to de-camp to Strasbourg: MEPs, their staff, civil servants, government representatives and diplomats. Numerous lorries are stacked up with office documents to be transported hundreds of miles to France, and this is despite the presence of an identical debating chamber in Brussels.

Mrs Lumley has now joined the ‘Stop the Strasbourg Circus’ Campaign and is calling on the Coalition Government to put an end to this.

She said: “The Prime Minister will shortly be participating in budget discussions with other EU heads of states on the content of the next seven year EU budget deal.

“Scrapping the Strasbourg Circus will save over £1billion as part of this deal.

“Rather than the EU constantly calling for money they should be using the money they have to better effect. They can do more with less so long as they concentrate on what is important like trade, research and jobs, rather than frittering it away on pointless vanity projects.

“I want this Government, and our Prime Minister, to fight for the taxpayer. He stood up to Brussels last December and it is time to do it again.

“I hope readers will join the campaign and sign the petition at stopthestrasbourgcircus.com.”