leadership post with strong backing from the Labour contingent. Green was strongly involved in the fight against Apartheid in South Africa. Ian White, an MEP elected at the same time as Green, said: "Although the parliamentary group formally elected Pauline, the "deal" was put together by the national party leaders. I believe that, had it been an open election, she would have won in any case, hands down, on competence alone." She held the position for five years (1994–99), and was involved at senior levels of policy making in the European Union and member governments. In 1998 there were rumours that she would stand to be Labour's candidate for Mayor of London. Whilst she expressed an interest in the position, she maintained that she would not be able to commit to the position until after the 1999 leadership elections because of her European commitments. Controversies Green was seen as a strong advocate of EU parliamentary and institutional reform: she was vocal in her criticisms of any hint of impropriety, for example calling ex-commissioner Martin Bangemann's appointment to Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica "sleaze soaked" for the impression it gave that he had used his position in the EC for his own advantage – even though he had broken no rules. However, her own final year as leader saw its own controversy with allegations of corruption against the EC. One of the Parliament's duties was to discharge the budget, confirming that the year's spending had been in line with the plans originally set by the EC and that the money had been spent honestly and efficiently. However, the parliamentary budget committee decided that it could not fulfill this duty with regard to the 1996 budget until points concerning the reduction of fraud in the transport system had been clarified. For six months, the debate raged, with Green initially supporting the campaign to discharge the budget (whilst calling for more radical change), but only after a group of specialists that included two senior Socialist MEPs announced that there had been a slight improvement. Parties from the centre and the right began to claim that the PES were only supporting their own members, and ultimately the move to discharge the budget was defeated. It was then that Green asserted that the argument would normally be solved in a national democracy by a vote of confidence: since that option did not exist in EU legislation,