David Cameron will face challenges both at home and abroad after the votes are counted in the European Parliament elections

The UK’s Conservative Party does not sit with other mainstream centre-right parties in the European Parliament as a member of the European People’s Party, but instead sits in a smaller group, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). Tim Bale assesses some of the challenges the party might face after the European Parliament elections on 22-25 May. He notes that with opinion polls predicting a difficult result for the Conservatives and some of their ECR allies, the party will face a dilemma over how to strengthen its position within the parliament, while also balancing discontent in his own party in the run up to the UK general election in 2015