Leading Brexit Party candidate lives in France and won’t say if he’ll move if he wins
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage with candidate Brian Monteith during his walkabout while on the European Election campaign trail in Sunderland. - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
A Brexit Party EU election candidate listed a French address on election materials and would not say if he'd move to his MEP region in the European elections.
Lead candidate Brian Monteith is standing in the North East region for the Brexit Party.
In a notice of election, which includes all candidates' names and addresses, Monteith listed his address in a village named Trevien, in southern France.
There is no rule in electoral law saying a UK candidate in the EU elections must live in the country.
In an interview with Newcastle paper the Chronicle, Monteith said he lives between the UK and France, but would not be drawn on whether he planned to move to the North East region if elected.
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"I don't think it's necessary for me to be here because it's not like I'm standing for the local council," he told the Chronicle. "This is about Europe."
Nor, he said, did he have any intention of taking a position on any issue raised in the European parliament except to say the decision should be taken in the UK.
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If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, as Nigel Farage has stated he would prefer, rights of UK citizens in the EU will be dependent on the whim of individual member states.
Monteith was a Member of Scottish Parliament for the Conservatives between 1999 and 2007.
The New European has approached the Brexit Party for comment.
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