“If anyone in the Labour Party should know how the European Union works it’s Peter Hain. A member of the Convention of the Future of Europe in the early 2000s, Hain will have seen how sensible proposals, compellingly argued, can lead to results at EU level – the permanent President of the European Council was a British idea and in the Treaty of Lisbon it saw the light of day. Further, Hain is Member of Parliament for Neath, an area that received £1.2 billion in EU regional funding in the period 2000-06, so he cannot deny the benefits of the EU budget.”
