In a landmark vote, the European Parliament has taken a major step towards scrapping the notorious Strasbourg Travelling Circus.

MEPs have voted by 483 votes to 141 to approve a report setting out a roadmap for reform which should provide the platform for scrapping the European Parliament’s dual seat system.

Supporting the campaign which has been spearheaded by fellow Conservative MEP Ashley Fox, West Midlands MEP Malcolm Harbour said: “I sincerely hope that this forms the first step in stopping the travelling circus from Brussels to Strasburg once a month which is such an enormous waste of money and resources.

“Most of the European Parliament's work is done at its huge complex of offices and debating chambers inBrussels, close to all the other institutions that we work with every day.

“But once a month 766MEPs, 3,000 staff and 25 trucks carrying documents and equipment all decamp to Strasbourg in France, hundreds of miles from Brussels.

“It has been estimated that over the parliament's seven-year long-term budget this will in fact cost taxpayers a staggering £928 million as well as pumping 20,000 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere every month. This travelling circus just has to stop.”