Michael Henry Nattrass

FRICS The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is a global professional body for surveyors, founded in London in 1868. It works at a cross-governmental level, and aims to promote and enforce the highest international standards in the val ...

(born 14 December 1945) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands constituency, from 2004 to 2014. He was elected as a candidate for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) for the first time in June 2004 and re-elected in June 2009, but resigned from the party in September 2013. He lost his seat in the May 2014 election.

Political career

In 1994, Nattrass joined the

New Britain Party New Britain was a minor British right-wing political party founded by Dennis Delderfield in 1976.Boothroyd, David, ''Politicos Guide to the History of British Political Parties'' (2001), p. 207. The party was de-registered in November 2008. Fo ...

, whose candidates were absorbed into the Referendum Party in 1997. Standing in Solihull, he gained the highest vote in the West Midlands for the Referendum Party at the 1997 general election (4.7%). In 1998, he accepted an invitation to join UKIP from its leader Michael Holmes and sat on the UKIP National Executive Committee. In 2000 he became Party Chairman under Leader

Jeffrey Titford Jeffrey William Titford (born 24 October 1933) is a British politician who served as leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2000 until 2002. He served again as interim leader in September to November 2010, following the resignation of ...

and from 2002 to 2006 he was Deputy Leader under Roger Knapman. Nattrass stood unsuccessfully in many parliamentary general elections and by-elections representing UKIP, including

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, known locally as Sutton ( ), is a town and civil parish in the City of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, the May 2008 Crewe and Nantwich by-election and South Staffordshire in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. He was elected to the European Parliament in 2004, one of 12 seats won by UKIP, with 16.1% of the vote. Nattrass was re-elected in

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

in June 2009. Nattrass failed a candidate assessment test in August 2013 and was deselected by the party for the 2014 European election. He took the party to court over the decision, but lost. He said he was considering standing as an independent at the next election. He left UKIP in September 2013. Nattrass was in talks with the English Democrats about the possibility of joining them, and agreed to speak at their September 2013 conference, but he chose not to after the party prematurely claimed he was joining them, citing concerns about elements in the party. In November 2013, Nattrass announced the creation of his new party, called An Independence Party. At the 2014 European election, the party stood as

Independence from Europe Independence from Europe was a minor, Eurosceptic political party in the United Kingdom. The party was first registered in June 2012 but remained inactive until it was launched in October 2013 by sole party leader Mike Nattrass, a disaffected m ...

but failed to win any seats.

References

External links

*
Profile at European Parliament website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nattrass, Mike 1945 births Living people Referendum Party politicians Politicians from Leeds MEPs for England 2004–2009 MEPs for England 2009–2014 UK Independence Party MEPs British Eurosceptics