GREATER maternity rights make small businesses less inclined to hire women of child-bearing age.

This was the point made, loud and clear, by my colleague Godfrey Bloom from Yorkshire, on our first visit to Strasbourg, as new UK Independence Party MEPs. It is a point worth making.

It is common sense that a business owner will consider all the relevant costs when making hiring decisions. Any employee who is potentially going to demand special leave is naturally less attractive than one who is not, because of the increased costs of a temporary replacement and any relevant training. Like it or not, all businesses, but particularly small ones, do have to pay attention to their wage bills.

Is it any wonder that new jobs in the UK are largely restricted to the public sector, or that unemployment in the eurozone remains around 10 per cent? In Germany, Italy and France, unemployment stands at nearly 30 per cent among the under-25s. Meanwhile the "informal" economy thrives, Mercedes makes cars in Africa, Dyson makes vacuum cleaners in Malaysia and Hayters make lawnmowers in China.

UKIP believes businesses work best when there is an understanding and mutual respect between employers and the workforce, with trade unions playing a useful role. This sort of Government interference is more likely to cause conflict and mutual suspicion.

Despite the continuing onslaught of regulation and red tape, small businesses are still the backbone of the British economy, providing some two-thirds of jobs, yet the Government seems determined to kill them off.

The saddest and most frightening aspect of all this is the secrecy. Small businessmen and women are afraid to speak out in public for fear of victimisation by the authorities, or past and future employees.

Following Godfrey Bloom's example, UKIP is determined to break the mould of political correctness and intends to continue exposing crass, ill-thought-out rules coming both from Brussels and our own administration.

John Whittaker MEP

UK Independence Party

North West region