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		Expulsion makes rebel MEP Helmer a local hero EU Reporter - 23 June 2005 By Darren Ennis Supporters of pro-European Conservative Kenneth Clarke believe he may have been damaged by the expulsion from the European Peoples’ Party of rebel Conservative MEP Roger Helmer. Helmer refuses to acknowledge that his departure “by our mutual consent” is likely to have any effect on any bid by Clarke to gain the leadership of the Conservative Party. He says he has fulfilled all the requirements to regain the party whip, suspended by the leader of the European Democratic delegation of Conservatives, but has had his sincerity questioned. He is not seeking to rejoin the EPP and says there are a number of MEPs ‘of a like mind as me’. This appears to confirm that a small number of Conservatives may join Helmer in forming a breakaway group. One, told this newspaper that “it will not happen immediately but will happen eventually”. Helmer was warmly welcomed by prominent Conservatives at the Margaret Thatcher dinner held last week at the Dorchester Hotel in London. The MEP says he has lost count of the letters of support and has not received one critical communication. To add to the British Tory MEPs’ troubles, another of their rank, Nirj Deva, has been hitting the headlines in the influential London evening newspaper The Standard with his support for Helmer. Deva wrote a pamphlet stating that the ED in the European Parliament is “just not working” adding that “no one at Central Office – the Conservative Party headquarters - is interested”. Roger Helmer recognises that most Conservative MEPs support his expulsion but confirms that “not all of them do”. However he says, and others confirm, that party chairmen from all over England have expressed support for him. “Not only do I have the full support of my East Midlands chairman Dudley Bryant, chairmen from all over have been sending me messages.” The Thatcher dinner, another MEP told us, was an occasion for moving forward the agenda for those in the party that are critical of Europe. “Every candidate for leadership was present except Ken Clark and Roger was the hero of the hour,” the MEP said. Helmer’s supporters say that his expulsion and defiant stand “will have a focusing effect in the minds of MPs when they come to choose their new leader. Clarke is currently testing the water to see whether he can command enough support to wrest the leadership and succeed Michael Howard. He announced at the weekend that he will appear on television’s Jonathan Dimbleby show to stress that he has not given up his ambition to be leader and to stop right winger David Davis, who is a Eurosceptic and supporter of low taxes. But there is a widespread view that Clarke will make way for another candidate on the liberal side of the party. A pro-Europe MEP told us: “Roger Helmer deserved to be disciplined but his expulsion by Hans Gert Poettering, as it is perceived, coming at the time of an EU crisis and a party leadership election is more than a little unfortunate. “It is bound to have an impact on the chances of the candidate we would like to see succeed Ken Clarke.”