Brendan is Director of the Federal Trust, the research institute studying the interactions between regional, national, European and global levels of government. He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in Sussex South and Crawley at the European Parliament election, 1994 for the Conservative Party. He then left the party, continued as an independent for a period, and then co-founded and became deputy leader of the Pro-Euro Conservative Party at the 1999 European elections. He stood in the 2009 European elections under the Yes2Europe political label and in the 2014 European elections for the 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP). He is former chair of the Federal Union.