A RISING tide of dissatisfaction with the EU could also harm the main parties, according to a recent poll.

Hampshire voters will help choose ten £63,000-a-year members of the European Parliament to represent the south-east for the next five years.

Fifteen parties have put forward lists of candidates who will be elected by proportional representation, a system which returns candidates according to their party’s overall share of the vote across the region.

But an ICM/TaxPayers’ Alliance poll found that among Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters a large majority felt their parties did not adequately represent their views on Britain’s future relationship with the EU.

The poll also revealed a wider dissatisfaction with the European Union, a majority against the euro, the Lisbon Treaty and further integration, and support for stripping powers from the EU. The financial crisis and the recession have made Britons more Eurosceptic, the survey found.

The European Parliament has been busy trying to make the elections relevant. But a lack of interest and confusion over the role of the parliament remains.

The Daily Echo will feature all the parties in the run-up to the Europe-wide poll on Thursday.