Michael Holmes is a former leader of the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

(UKIP), who served 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) for

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities ...

from 1999 to 2002. He was educated at

Sevenoaks School Sevenoaks School is a highly selective coeducational independent school in Sevenoaks, Kent, England. It is the second oldest non-denominational school in the United Kingdom, dating back to 1432, only behind Oswestry (1407). Over 1,000 day pupils ...

. At the 1997 general election, Holmes unsuccessfully contested the New Forest West constituency. Later that year he was elected leader of UKIP. In 1999 he and two other UKIP candidates were elected to 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 ...

. The following year, he stepped down from the leadership as a result of calling for extended powers for the European Parliament in his maiden speech there in defiance of party policy. The party conference condemned him. He left the party, but continued to sit as an independent MEP until 2002. He then resigned as an MEP and was replaced by Graham Booth, who had been the next candidate on the UKIP party list for

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People educated at Sevenoaks School UK Independence Party parliamentary candidates Leaders of the UK Independence Party UK Independence Party MEPs MEPs for England 1999–2004 British Eurosceptics {{UK-MEP-stub