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Barroso urges legal action against UKIP

Tuesday, 15th December 2009

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso today urged the head of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajenda Pachouri, to sue UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall for raising questions over Pachouri's financial links to Tata Steel of India.

Tata, the owners of Corus, stand to benefit from the Carbon Credits scheme which has been pushed by the IPCC. It is expected that the closure of the Corus plant on Teeside will bring windfall benefits of almost $1bn by selling the defunct plant's carbon credits.

Mr Nuttall had simply asked "Cui bono?" (to whose benefit)? when raising wider questions about the use of British taxpayers money to export British jobs in the steel industry.

In his speech, he said, "The real gain to Corus/Tata from stopping production on Teeside is the saving it will make on its carbon allowances, allocated by the EU and worth up to £600m over the next three years.

"Surprise, surprise, the head of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachouri, is the head of the Tata Foundation, so one must ask 'Cui bono', as Tata of India owns Corus."

In response, President Barroso urged Mr Pachouri to take Mr Nuttall to court, before admitting that the closure of the Corus plant was a direct consequence of EU legislation.

See Mr Nuttall's full speech here.