Jackson believed that David Cameron was wrong to direct the Conservative MEPs to leave the European People's Party in 2009 because this meant a huge loss of political influence. She pointed out that the Conservatives had in fact enjoyed a high level of political independence within the EPP. She argued that the Conservatives' new position from 2009 in the "Conservatives and European Reformists group" with the Czech ODS party, the Polish Law and Justice party and a motley crew of European rightists, would mean that they would lose influence and visibility in the European Parliament at precisely the moment when the Parliament's powers were increasing. She made her views known in press articles in 2009 and Cameron feared that she might follow her husband, Robert V. Jackson, MP for Wantage (1983-2005) in abandoning the Conservative party for the Labour Party. But she remained a Conservative and the party paid tribute to her work when she left the Parliament, William Hague pointing out that Jackson was "always ahead of the curve".