A MIDLANDS Euro MP has blamed left-wingers for holding up the selection of the European Commission.
Tory Philip Bushill-Matthews accused the socialist block for using controversial Italian Commission candidate Rocco Buttiglione as a "scapegoat" to scrap the nominees.
"Some people have said it's all about power but it's not so much a power struggle between the Commission and the Parliament, but within the Parliament as well," he said.
"The fear from the hard left was that the new Commission would be much more reform minded and deregulatory, which they didn't approve of."
Yesterday, commission president-elect Jose Manuel Barroso was forced to withdraw his 24-strong line-up at the last minute, because of fears MEPs would reject Mr Buttiglione, who has said homosexuality is a sin and unmarried women make bad mothers.
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