Andrew Bruce Wigmore (born 1 June 1966) is a British-Belizean political

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

, former

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

and sportsman. He is known for his work on the

Leave.EU Leave.EU was a political campaign group that was first established to support the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, June 2016 referendum. Founded in July 2015 as ...

campaign during the UK's 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union, being a prominent associate of

Arron Banks Arron Fraser Andrew Banks (born 1966) is a British businessman and political donor. He is the co-founder (with Richard Tice) of the Leave.EU campaign. Banks was previously one of the largest donors to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and helped ...

and

Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage (; born 3 April 1964) is a British broadcaster and former politician who was List of UK Independence Party leaders, Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 and Brexit Party#Leaders, Lea ...

, and representing

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

in competitive

trap shooting Trap shooting, or trapshooting in North America, is one of the three major disciplines of competitive clay pigeon shooting, which is shooting shotguns at clay targets. The other disciplines are skeet shooting and sporting clays. They are disting ...

in the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

Life

Andrew Wigmore was born on 1 June 1966 in

Chipping Norton Chipping Norton is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Banbury and north-west of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the civil parish population as ...

, Oxfordshire. Wigmore is half- Belizean, and holds dual citizenship of Belize and the United Kingdom. He attended the Sacred Heart College in

Droitwich Droitwich Spa (often abbreviated to Droitwich ) is an historic spa town in the Wychavon district in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. It is located approximately south-west of Birmingham and north-east of Worcester. The ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

. Andrew Wigmore said in June 2018: "My dad worked in Berlin during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

in a place called the ''Berlin Air Safety Centre'', which was an organisation that looks after the air corridors. They worked with the Soviets 24/7. My dad interacted with the Soviets. I grew up in that environment in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. I met many of the Soviets; I was fascinated by everything that went on in Berlin during the Cold War (...) my Dad dragged me out of bed at some ungodly hour to go and watch a piece of history, which was the last spy swap at Glienicke Bridge". Wigmore has worked in communications mainly privately until 2016 when he was director of communications for Arron Banks' Leave.EU campaign. He also held a role as a Trade, Commercial and Press Attaché at the Belize High Commission in London, a diplomatic position bound by the Vienna Convention. Following Wigmore's highly publicised meeting with then

President-elect of the United States The president-elect of the United States is the candidate who has presumptively won the United States presidential election and is awaiting inauguration to become the president. There is no explicit indication in the U.S. Constitution as to when ...

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

complaints arose regarding Wigmore forgoing his "duty not to interfere in the internal affairs f another country as an accredited diplomat. Wigmore's role with the Belizean High commission ended on 23 January 2017. From September 2015, Wigmore, along with Arron Banks, had multiple meetings with Russian officials posted at the Russian embassy in London. The first contact was with Russian diplomat and suspected spy Alexander Udod, in order to ask for a meeting with Russia's ambassador to Britain

Alexander Vladimirovich Yakovenko Alexander Vladimirovich Yakovenko (russian: Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Якове́нко; born 21 October 1954) is a Russian diplomat. He served as the Ambassador of Russia to the United Kingdom between Janua ...

. In 2018, Wigmore was accused by

Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, formerly the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, is one of the select committees of the British House of Commons, established in 1997. It oversees the operations of the Department fo ...

Chair

Damian Collins Damian Noel Thomas Collins (born 4 February 1974) is a British Conservative Party politician who formerly served as Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport between July and October 2022. ...

of misleading

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

over the nature of his relationship with officials at the Russian embassy. It was alleged in 2021 that Wigmore sent abusive messages online to journalist

Carole Cadwalladr Carole Jane Cadwalladr (; born 1969) is a British author, investigative journalist and features writer. She is a features writer for ''The Observer'' and formerly worked at ''The Daily Telegraph''. Cadwalladr rose to international prominence in ...

, for which he was subsequently suspended from

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Shooting

Wigmore represented Belize at the

. He competed in the men's trap event ranking 31st and 36th respectively on the first and second day of qualification. He failed to qualify any further. He also attempted to represent Belize again at the Rio Olympics but failed to qualify.

Personal life

Wigmore is married and has two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wigmore, Andy 1966 births Living people People from Chipping Norton English people of Belizean descent Belizean male sport shooters Commonwealth Games competitors for Belize Shooters at the 2014 Commonwealth Games

Life

Shooting

Personal life

See also

References