THE Tory party, struggling to contain embarrassing outbursts from its new partners on the east European right, has sent its media minders to control their public image.

The Conservative spin doctors have become involved in a damage limitation operation following a row over its former Soviet bloc allies’ views on the Holocaust, race and homosexuality.

Michal Kaminski, the Polish MEP whose views are at the centre of the controversy, is chairman of the new Eurosceptic parliamentary group European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which includes the Tory party.

Conservative press officers have take over management of Kaminski’s media appearances and are said to hand-pick his interviews, which are conducted in the presence of at least two Tory advisers. A Conservative official now runs the ECR’s press operation.

The Sunday Times had been due to conduct an interview with Kaminski, an MEP with the Catholic and nationalist Law and Justice party. The meeting was to have been attended by two Tory media experts, but was cancelled at the last moment. The offices of Kaminski’s party in the European parliament then referred The Sunday Times’s queries to the Conservatives.

In a recent interview with The Jewish Chronicle, Kaminski was minded by four Tories, at least two of whom were press officers.

Edward McMillan-Scott, formerly a senior Tory MEP, expelled from the party after successfully running against Kaminski for the post of a vice-president of the European parliament, said the policy extended beyond Kaminski to other east European MEPs from ECR.

“I have been told that MEPs and their staff have been instructed not to speak to

the press and refer all queries

to Tory spokespeople,” said

McMillan-Scott.

“It would appear that following the highly embarrassing revelations about its new partners, the Tory party has decided not to let them say anything that may cause further damage.”

Kaminski, 37, has in the past voiced controversial views about the Holocaust and homosexuality. He repeatedly referred to gay people as “fags” in an interview in 2000.

He has also said it is “unfair” to treat a massacre by Poles of Jews in the war in the same way as Nazi crimes. He opposes an apology by Poles for the killings at Jedwabne unless the Jews also say sorry for atrocities they are said to have committed in collusion with Poland’s Soviet occupiers. Kaminski vehemently denies being either anti-Semitic or homophobic.

The Jewish Chronicle interview with Kaminski, when he was accompanied by four Tories, was conducted by Martin Bright. “They seemed to think he is a walking liability,” he said. “He was very, very uncomfortable, he sweated heavily throughout the interview and appeared to have been thoroughly briefed.”

The Tory group also includes an MEP from the Lithuanian party For Fatherland and Freedom that has in the past come under fire for honouring its country’s members of SS brigades that participated in the Holocaust.

A Conservative spokesman denied Tory spin doctors were shielding their allies. When asked about the alleged instructions for MEPs not to speak to the press directly, the spokesman said that he was “not aware” of any such move.

In a separate development, some Conservatives are also

trying to establish a new pan-

European party that would be eligible for up to €1m (£893,000) in EU funding. The party, called Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, could enable its MEPs to receive up to €15,000 (£13,400) on top of their current pay.

As many as 10 Tory MEPs are said to have refused to sign up to the new party. Robert Sturdy, an eastern region MEP, said: “I refused to sign up as I can’t

possibly justify taking another €15,000 of taxpayers’ money when my constituency is suffering a severe recession.”

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