A NORTH Yorkshire Euro MP swapped Brussels for the election trail in York as he lent his support to three of his party’s candidates.

Edward McMillan-Scott, who has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1984, joined the trio of Liberal Democrats hoping to regain a ward the party lost four years ago as they canvassed for votes in Poppleton ahead of the May 5 poll.

Mr McMillan-Scott, now an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber after previously holding the role for York and then North Yorkshire, joined the Lib Dems last March after being expelled from the Conservatives following a row over their leader David Cameron’s European Union strategy.

Quentin Macdonald, the former councillor who is fighting the Rural West York seat, which includes Poppleton, for the Lib Dems alongside Glen Bradley and Richard Brown, said: “We enjoy working with Edward, who is a very interesting character, gets stuck in with canvassing and tells things how they are.

“We’re very pleased to have his support, because Rural West York is always a knife-edge ward where you have to work if you want to win, and that is what we are doing.”