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30th Jan 2019

Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness shuts down heckler during heated Brexit debate

Alan Loughnane

Mairead mcGuinness

Very well handled.

Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness showed great composure in dealing with a heckler during a Brexit debate in the European Parliament.

McGuinness is Vice President of the European Parliament and was chairing the European Parliament’s debate on latest Brexit developments on Wednesday alongside Jean-Claude Juncker and Michel Barnier.

During the debate, eurosceptic Independent MEP David Coburn interrupted proceedings a number of times to heckle speakers, at one stage shouting ‘auf wiedersehen’ as German MEP Elmar Brok finished speaking.

In another outburst, he shouting “good” at Guy Verhofstadt, the EU Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator, when he was speaking about the uncertainty Brexit is causing.

As Verhofstadt urged for a cross-party effort in the House of Commons to solve the deadlock, Coburn could be heard shouting “rubbish” loudly in the background.

Responding to the repeated taunts and heckles from Coburn, McGuinness said “This is a very difficult issue for all of us. The least we can do is respect the person who has the microphone.

“There are too many on my right intervening with the debate. Please listen, it is far too serious of issue to play out in parliament.

“This is not the House of Commons colleagues, it’s the European Parliament.”

Coburn is the former leader of Ukip in Scotland but resigned from the post in December to become an Independent MEP.

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