MEMBERS of a campaign group in Stroud had the chance to put questions to South West MEP Molly Scott Cato on Monday, July 20.

Activists from 38 Degrees asked the Green politician about a range of issues covering the future of the EU, the Human Rights Act, banking reform, bees and the NHS.

Molly was also asked about The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) – a treaty under negotiation between the EU and America. She is well known for her opposition to the partnership.

At the gathering at Star Anise Molly said: “The problem is that the grand coalition in parliament is now basically working across the right and left to support this treaty which they claim will help jobs and growth but they don't have any evidence that that's the case.

“There's a very important study from Tufts University that showed that actually we would lose jobs in Europe.

“So what can we do? I think the most important thing we can do is explain to people what it’s about because it’s actually a power grab and not anything to do with trading goods.

“It's going to undermine our farmers and our small businesses which will face unfair competition from production in the US which has lower employment, environmental and animal welfare standards.”

The Green Party is against T-TIP and is particularly concerned about the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism.

At a vote at the beginning of July Molly voted against ISDS which Greens believe would potentially allow corporations to sue governments over legislation that impacts on their profits.

However the European Parliament passed the resolution on T-TIP after a majority of Social Democrats and Conservatives voted in favour of it.