The Pro-Euro Conservative Party distributed leaflets calling William Hague "Bill Duce", after Mussolini, when a group of Conservative MEPs led by Daniel Hannan were reported to be planning to leave the European People's Party grouping and join with an Italian far-right party. John Stevens said Hague was "taking the Tories into an extreme, nationalist party. This is dangerous for the country and catastrophic for the Conservative Party". The PECP's party political broadcast showed an actor portraying Hague as "a down-and-out in a baseball cap ranting about pride in being British and disliking 'frogs', the European single currency and anything else from the continent", which was called "a tacky and amateurish exercise" by the Conservative Party.