Strange Bedfellows....

Speaking to journalists last week in Brussels, Edward McMillan-Scott pledged to "work alongside" the EPP group in the European parliament. He also reaffirmed his committment to human rights issues, highlighting his concerns about China in particular.

He left the conservative ECR group in protest at alleged far-right backgrounds of some of that group's members, and currently sits as a non-attached MEP, having lost the Tory whip.

Eyebrows are therefore being raised in Strasbourg this week over a Motion for a Resolution that he has tabled, on the subject of human rights violations in China. His co-signatories, Fiorello Provera and Lorenzo Fontana are both members of the EFD group, and the resolution is tabled on that group's behalf.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows, but this alliance with two members of the Italian Lega Nord marks a radical departure from his previously impeccable anti-racist credentials. Members of that party have been accused of a number of racially motivated attacks, with one MEP having lost his position in the Italian parliament after he called for racial segregation on Milan's buses. There have also been allegations of homophobia.

The EFD is also home to Nigel Farage's UKIP. As McMillan-Scott prepares to fight for his position in the Conservative party, this unusual alliance may become problematic for him.