FARMERS in Europe are 'driving a coach and horses' through EU rules and regulations that are strictly adhered to in Britain — and one of the South West's new Euro MPs says he is determined to tackle the problem.

The Earl of Stockton, one of four Tory MEPs from the region swept into Brussels on the anti-Euro tide in last week's poll, believes his party's slogan, 'In Europe but not run by Europe', had a resonance with voters.

The Earl, 55, who lives at Stowford, said: 'Before we have any more new rules and regulations the ones we have, particularly in agriculture, must be properly and equally enforced across the EU.

'We see farmers in the South West being disadvantaged time and time again because they stick to the letter of the law while in other parts of Europe farmers are driving a coach and horses through it.'

The Earl, the grandson of former Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, also aims to argue the case for Objective 2 status for the 'Plymouth-Devon Arc' — a source of Euro funding that will help to revitalise the local economy.

'Objective 2 will provide us with a challenge, but it is not a panacea. It will help to fuel the steam of the pattern for change but we also need to make the most of what we have.'

The Earl is also keen to improve the policy-making process in Europe so that people have 'a genuine method of getting their views across'.

Policy-making should take place before issues came before the European Parliament and before formal negotiations with its ministers, he said.

The anti-Euro feeling in last week's poll showed itself in the West Devon and Torridge part of the region where the UK Independence Party shot straight to second place with almost a thousand more votes than the Liberal Democrats. But the turnout here was, as elsewhere, abnormally low with just 33 per cent bothering to vote.

The UKIP's policy platform that Britain should withdraw from Europe was roundly rejected by the Earl of Stockton: 'Withdrawal is out of the question — it is not a realistic option, there is no way we can come out now.'

He described the record low turnout as 'a worry', particularly as it was also down in other EU states.

The Earl is the only one of the seven Euro MPs returned for the huge South West seat to live in West Devon.

He is not one of the Tory Party's Euro sceptics — he is a long-standing member of the European Movement and chairman of the European League for Economic Co-operation.

An old Etonian, he is president of the Macmillan Publishing Group and a former European correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph. He speaks fluent French and 'reasonable' Spanish, German and Italian — and proudly claims that his linguistic skills are such that he can order a drink in 19 different languages.

Full result details — page 11 of this week's Times Gazette.