CONSERVATIVE MEP for the West Midlands, Philip Bradbourn, has renewed his call to scrap the European Parliament’s monthly commute from Brussels to Strasbourg - a move that costs taxpayers £180 million a year.

Mr Bradbourn had long campaigned to put a end to Europe’s ping pong parliamentary schedule and in 2006, helped launched a petition with this aim in mind.

Not content to leave matters there, Mr Bradbourn has helped launch the latest of Conservative initiatives aimed at reducing the amount of time spent in the French city.

This latest of protests saw Mr Bradbourn and his West Midlands colleague, Malcolm Harbour MEP, walk the Strasbourg Parliament with an oversized £180 million banknote, symbolically depicting the annual cost to EU taxpayers of the monthly trek to Strasbourg.

Speaking from his parliamentary seat in Strasbourg, Mr Bradbourn said: "Over the years, it has become increasingly apparent that EU taxpayers fork out an unnecessary £180 million every year so that we can work for four days in a month, 12 times a year, in Strasbourg.

“It is unlikely that the EU Council of Ministers will see sense on this issue for sometime to come but our protest has gone down well and suggests the momentum is with us.

"In my opinion, it’s only a matter of time before member states, and particularly the French government, are forced to act.

“It really beggars belief that at a time when citizens worldwide are calling on governments to tighten their belts and curb their excesses that the EU refuses to address this costly and wasteful anachronism.”