LABOUR MEPs have denounced as a “disgraceful abuse” a grant of €250,000 (£170,000) of European taxpayers’ money to the UK Independence Party to campaign for Britain to leave the EU.

The UKIP, which has accused the EU of spending public funds to promote European integration,will use the money to begin a campaign for a referendum on withdrawal.

It will start on Monday with a series of advertisements in national newspapers, including The Times, and a website. It is thought to be the first time that EU money has been used to push for withdrawal from the union.

The UKIP, which has ten MEPs, received the money from a fund for providing “information” to the public, which is given to all political groups.

Stephen Hughes, a Labour MEP, said: “This is a disgraceful abuse of parliamentary funds. It’s wrong that money meant for promoting the work of the institution is being used to undermine it — they are using the money to undermine everything we work for. We should have a review of the rules.”

Gary Titley, the Labour leader in the European Parliament, told the European Voice newspaper: “This fund was originally intended for the dissemination of information, rather than for political campaigning. I would seriously question whether this is an appropriate use of Parliamentary money.”

The UKIP accused its Labour counterparts of hypocrisy.

Nigel Farage, the parliamentary leader of UKIP, said: “It is a perfectly valid use of the money — we are delighted with the irony of the situation. I did not hear complaints from Mr Titley when his own group spent their information budget interfering in the referendums in Ireland, Denmark, France, Holland and Malta. All we are doing is a little to redress the balance.”

There were cries of foul recently when the European Parliament voted to spend its entire information budget promoting the European constitution, and nothing to promote arguments against it.

The European Commission, the EU executive, also spends millions of pounds a year promoting European integration through support for several federalist think-tanks, information campaigns in schools and universities, seminars and conferences, and a vast network of university professorships.

The UKIP decided to campaign for a referendum after the government dropped plans for a poll on the European constitution after the French and Dutch no votes. The Government has also dropped plans for a referendum on British membership of the euro. Eurosceptics believe they can overwhelmingly win any referendum on European issues.

Polling for the UKIP suggests that a majority in Britain would like a vote on membership of the EU. The campaign is named “Let the People Decide”, the same used by the billionaire Sir James Goldsmith, founder of the Referendum Party, to campaign for a vote on the euro.

Mr Farage, who hopes to collect two million signatures on a petition, said: “We’re looking to raise the whole question of why, for over 30 years, we have never had a say on the EU.”

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