Letter: The Tories' choices

Sir: Conservative voters in last week's election will soon feel short- changed if their endorsement of Euroscepticism is followed by the victorious Tory MEPs rejoining the Christian Democratic European People's Party.

In policy area after policy area, the EPP agenda for further integration diverges from the decentralised vision espoused by William Hague. For the EPP the euro is only the beginning of a path to a United States of Europe. They want a common foreign and security policy, with member states who sit on the UN Security Council promoting the EU interest. They look to establish a federal budget, with the European Parliament having a direct relationship with EU taxpayers. They seek to extend qualified majority voting and introduce greater policy harmonisation.

William Hague is deservedly basking in the glow of electoral success but voter support could easily turn to anger on discovering they have been conned into strengthening the position of the EPP to bring about the very Europe they rejected last Thursday.