Brexit Party MEP says it ‘hadn’t crossed my mind’ to consider route to Strasbourg

Emma Barnett and David Bull. Photograph: Twitter. - Credit: Archant

A Brexit Party MEP who took to social media to fume about how long it takes to get to Strasbourg has admitted he didn’t consider the journey length before he applied for the job.

David Bull MEP managed to make ‘Strasbourg’ trend on Twitter after viewers reacted to his video rant about his eight hour journey from Ipswich to Strasbourg the day before.

The Brexit Party representative for the North West region fumed: “This is the beginning of my trip to Strasbourg. So it’s eight hours, and as you can see here, is the first of many trains.

“So this is Ipswich to London Liverpool Street, so after that I have to go from London Liverpool Street to King’s Cross.

“From King’s Cross I then have to go to Paris, and then after Paris I then have to change stations. I then have to go from Paris to Strasbourg, and I arrive at something like twenty to seven tonight.

https://twitter.com/bbc5live/status/1145995905851625473

“I left home already at eight o’clock this morning, having got in at midnight. And I’m going to have to do this repeatedly because for some reason parliament seems to be in a very inaccessible place.”

But asked about it by Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 5 Live, the MEP admitted he had not considered the journey length before he applied for the role.

She asked: “Did you not look up how you might get to the European parliament in advance before whining on Twitter?”

“Weirdly it didn’t really cross my mind…” replied the MEP and former TV presenter.

Barnett pondered: “So you take a job without knowing how to get there or what you’ll be paid?”

But Bull responded: “To be honest, yes, because the principle was far more important than what I was paid.”

The radio present told the MEP “there weren’t tiny violins playing for you because most people don’t complain about their commute to work, they usually research it before hand like they look at the salary.”

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But Bull insisted it needed context. “I didn’t stand to get a job, I stood up for democracy. Now as a result of it we had no idea what was going to happen, and as a result we got 29 MEPs making us the largest single party here in the European parliament and since we are now here we need to do the job in hand.”