Bashir Khanbhai (22 September 1945 – 16 April 2020) was a British

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...

. Born in

Tanga, Tanzania Tanga is both the name of the most northerly port city of Tanzania on the west of the Indian Ocean, and the capital of Tanga Region. It had a population of 273,332 in 2012. The name ''Tanga'' means "sail" in Swahili. The city of Tanga sits on t ...

, Khanbhai worked in the family business and took a degree in

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

at the

School of Pharmacy, University of London The UCL School of Pharmacy (formerly The School of Pharmacy, University of London) is the pharmacy school of University College London (UCL). The School forms part of UCL's Faculty of Life Sciences and is located in London, United Kingdom. The ...

, then a masters' in politics, philosophy and economics at the University of Oxford. He also became a member of the Standing Committee of the Oxford Union. Khanbhai joined the

, and stood for them in

Norwich South Norwich South is a constituency in Norfolk represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, since 2015 by Clive Lewis, of the Labour Party. History The constituency was created by the Representation of the People ...

at the 1997 general election, but was not elected. At the

1999 European Parliament election The 1999 European Parliament election was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and ...

, he was elected from third position on the

list in the

. In 2004, Khanbhai repaid £7,000 of wrongly claimed travel expenses; although he lived in Sevenoaks, Kent, he had registered a

boatyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

in Wroxham as his home address. In light of this expenses scandal, he was deselected by his party, and did not stand in the 2004 election. He subsequently claimed that he had been treated differently from other Conservative MEPs in similar positions, ascribing this to

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

elements within the party.

Antony Barnett Antony Barnett is a British investigative journalist. Since 2007 he has worked as a reporter and presenter for Channel 4’s flagship current affairs series '' Dispatches''. He joined Channel 4 after working for more than a decade at ''The Observ ...

,
Muslim Tory MEP slams 'racist' party
, '' The Guardian'', 23 May 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khanbhai, Bashir 1945 births 2020 deaths Alumni of the UCL School of Pharmacy Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) MEPs MEPs for England 1999–2004 Tanzanian emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Tanga, Tanzania People from Tanga Region British people of Indian descent Khoja Ismailism