[T]here was embarrassment for Mr Cameron as the leader of the right-wing alliance in the Strasbourg Parliament, which includes Tory MEPs, quit his party in Poland because he said it was too extreme.

Michal Kaminski, the leader of the European Conservative and Reformists (ECR) – formed when Mr Cameron snubbed the mainstream centre-right parties of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy – said the Tories’ main partner, Poland’s Law and Justice Party, was “being taken over by the far right”.

Senior Tories fear the ECR could break apart if Mr Kaminsky tries to remain its leader. If his former Polish party were to pull out, the group could collapse. Even if it survives, Tory MEPs would be in partnership with a party condemned as extremist by one of its former leaders.

Before the election, Nick Clegg condemned the Tories’ allies as “nutters, anti-Semites and homophobes” and the latest controversy has called into question Mr Cameron’s decision to pull out of the mainstream European People’s Party (EPP). Yet any attempt to rejoin the EPP would anger Eurosceptic Tories, whose hackles have been raised by the Irish bailout.

…more at The Independent

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1. Liberal Conspiracy

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3. Aled-Dilwyn Fisher

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5. Mark Jones

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