He was a Europhile parliamentarian, serving on the Parliamentary Committee on the Channel Tunnel, the all party group for European Union, and the British Council of the European Movement.
She was a passionate Europhile believer in Britain's place at the centre of Europe.
In 2000 he wrote a letter to The Spectator in which he declared "as a committed Europhile" that the best solution would be to allow Britain to opt into EU laws it liked, and supported the call from Conrad Black for Britain to negotiate membership of the North American Free Trade Agreement.