The winning ticket!

Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg hands a party membership card to Edward McMillan-Scott MEP. The two have known each other for many years. Edward joined because 'most of my family are Liberals: I am happy to join the Liberal family".

ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2010

Edward campaigned for LibDem wins in the general election: "For the first time in my poltical life there is a chance of a fair electoral system. I am delighted to be on the right side at last" he said, after he joined Richard Burt, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for West Worcestershire, on the campaign trail, canvassing in Malvern. One of the most marginal Tory/LibDem marginals in the countr, it was retained by the Conservatives. They were also joined by the Lib Dem President Baroness Ros Scott..

Edward also campaiged in other Tory/LibDem marginals

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Joining the Liberal Democrats                                  

Edward McMillan-Scott has always described himself as a "liberal Conservative". He is a prominent pro-European and a longstanding supporter of electoral reform. Following a long dispute with the Tories over David Cameron's controversial new European alliance (see Tory Troubles) he joined the Liberal Democrats on March 12 2010 becoming a "conservative Liberal". The week before, his lawyers said that he could not expect a fair hearing from the Conservative Party against his expulsion for protesting against Cameron's alliance, so he resigned and joined the LibDems.

One of the key reasons Edward joined the Liberal Democrats at their Birmingham conference is that in Nick Clegg they have a leader whom Edward likes, admires and respects.Edward's colleagues in the European Parliament remember Nick as a very able and assiduous MEP. 

Writing in the Easter edition of Europe's Parliament Magazine, Edward says that Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne, another former MEP, are among those, like Vince Cable, "who have modernised the Lib Dems to face the challenges before us, at home and abroad."

The Lib Dems have an EU and world perspective which Edward shares, and this new political base enables him to continue his focus on democracy and human rights, the cornerstone of the EU's foreign policy and a priority for liberals.

As Vice-President of the European Parliament responsible for human rights and democracy, Edward has worked on numerous campaigns in the parliament over the years, predominantly with Liberal colleagues but never with Conservatives.

Campaigning for electoral reform

Edward is a long- time supporter of electoral reform. He supports both a form of proportional representation for elections to the House of Commons and a fully-elected second chamber.

Here he is pictured chairing a packed fringe meeting at the 2009 Conservative Spring Forum in Cheltenham. Other speakers were Peter Facey, director of Unlock Democracy and Havard Hughes, campaigns director for the Electoral Reform Society (seated).

While leader of the Conservative MEPs he oversaw the first UK-wide election under PR, the 1999 Euro-election which saw the Tories doubling their MEP to 36. He opposed the 'closed list' PR system brought in by the Labour government, arguing that it was designed to separate MEPs from the electorate.

He produced the "Euro-PR Card" to introduce Conservative voters to his 'Heineken effect': PR reaches voters that other systems cannot reach. He organised a seminar at Conservative HQ with speakers Vernon Bogdanor and David Butler. The Tory party hierarchy remained stubbornly opposed to PR even when Prof John Curtice showed that it would benefit from PR. 

Edward proposed to Dominic Grieve that there should be a post-election Conservative working group on electoral reform.