Brendan Patrick Donnelly (born 25 August 1950) is a pro-European Union British politician and former member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

. Born in London, Donnelly was educated at St Ignatius' College in

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...

, and then at Christ Church, Oxford. He worked at the Foreign Office from 1976 until 1982, when he joined the secretariat of the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Group in the

. From 1986 to 1987, he was a political adviser to Lord Cockfield, and then from 1987 to 1990 worked as an independent consultant on the European Community. At the

1989 European Parliament election The 1989 European Parliament election was a European election held across the 12 European Community member states in June 1989. It was the third European election but the first time that Spain and Portugal voted at the same time as the other m ...

, he stood unsuccessfully for the Conservatives in

London West London West (french: London-Ouest) is a federal electoral district in London, Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1968. Geography The district includes the northwest part of the City of London. I ...

. Donnelly was elected as a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) in Sussex South and Crawley at the

1994 European Parliament election The 1994 European Parliamentary election was a European election held across the 12 European Union member states in June 1994. This election saw the merge of the European People's Party and European Democrats, an increase in the overall numbe ...

for the Conservative Party. He then left the party, continued as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

for a period, and then co-founded and became deputy leader of the

Pro-Euro Conservative Party The Pro-Euro Conservative Party was a British political party announced by John Stevens and Brendan Donnelly in February 1999, formed to contest the 1999 European Parliament election. The founders were Members of the European Parliament who had ...

at the 1999 European elections. He failed to get elected and subsequently joined the Liberal Democrats. He stood in the 2009 European elections under the Yes2Europe political label. He stood in the

2014 European elections Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

for the 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP). He stood in the

2021 London Assembly election The 2021 London Assembly election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the members of the London Assembly, alongside the 2021 London mayoral election. The mayoral and Assembly elections were originally to be held on 7 May 2020, but on 13 March 2020 i ...

for

Rejoin EU Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Politi ...

. He was unsuccessful in each case. He stood for Rejoin EU in the June

2021 Chesham and Amersham by-election A by-election was held in the United Kingdom Parliament constituency of Chesham and Amersham on 17 June 2021, following the death of the sitting member, Dame Cheryl Gillan, on 4 April 2021. Gillan had served as MP for the constituency since 1992 ...

. Donnelly is director of the Federal Trust and, until 6 March 2010, was chair of the

Federal Union A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governi ...

, when he was succeeded by Richard Laming.

References

1950 births Living people Conservative Party (UK) MEPs People educated at St Ignatius' College, Enfield Politicians from London MEPs for England 1994–1999 Pro-Euro Conservative Party MEPs Liberal Democrats (UK) politicians Politicians of the Pro-Euro Conservative Party {{UK-MEP-stub