Piers Andrew Charles Wauchope (born 1956) is a British barrister and politician who served as interim 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) between June and August 2019, following the resignation of

Gerard Batten Gerard Joseph Batten (born 27 March 1954) is a British politician who served as the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2018 to 2019. He was a founding member of the party in 1993, and served as a Member of the European Parliament ( ...

. Previously a member of the

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 ...

, Wauchope was a councillor representing Adelaide and later Belsize wards in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and ...

from

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

to 2006, having unsuccessfully stood in the wards of Holborn (in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

) and Bloomsbury (in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

). He served as leader of the Conservative Group, and of the opposition, on Camden Council from 2000 to 2006, replacing

Pamela Chesters Pamela Joy Chesters CBE (born 1956) is a former executive of British Petroleum who was later a Camden London Borough Council councillor, a Conservative parliamentary candidate, and an advisor to Boris Johnson. She now serves as Chair of Council ...

. After leaving the Conservative Party, he joined UKIP and was elected to the NEC in 2015. Wauchope trained as a criminal barrister, being called to the bar in 1985, and specialises in children's law, injunctions and domestic violence. In 2010, he made the news after separating two brawling men during a court session at

Snaresbrook Crown Court Snaresbrook Crown Court is a historic, Grade II listed building situated in Snaresbrook, an area within the London Borough of Redbridge. It is one of 12 Crown Court centres serving Greater London and is designated as a third-tier court. It is ...

. Wauchope was unhurt in the scuffle, having only his glasses knocked off. In 2015, he represented former UKIP parliamentary candidate Matthew Smith in an electoral fraud case. He was educated at

Worth School Worth may refer to: Places In the United States: *Worth, Georgia *Worth County, Georgia *Worth, Illinois *Worth Township, Cook County, Illinois *Worth Township, Woodford County, Illinois *Worth Township, Indiana *Worth Township, Michigan *Worth, ...

and the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

. In addition to authoring legal guides and contributing to journals, Wauchope has written a political history of the

called ''Camden: A Political History 1964-2006'', which the ''

Camden New Journal The ''Camden New Journal'' is a British independent newspaper published in the London Borough of Camden. It was launched by editor Eric Gordon (who died on 5 April 2021, aged 89) in 1982 following a two-year strike at its predecessor, the ''C ...

'' described as "An intriguing, witty read......his retelling of power struggles and forgotten gossip sparkles".

Electoral history

In the

2012 United Kingdom local elections 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, Wauchope ran as a UKIP candidate and won the Rusthall electoral ward seat on

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Tunbridge may refer to the following places: * Tunbridge, Illinois, United States * Tunbridge, North Dakota, see Locations in the United States with an English name#North Dakota * Tunbridge, Tasmania, Australia * Tunbridge, Vermont, United State ...

. He beat the incumbent Conservative councillor and council leader Bob Atwood by 46 votes. He left the position on 16 April 2015. He stood to be the first police and crime commissioner for

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in the

2012 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2012. International * 2012 United Nations Security Council election Africa Egypt * 2012 Egyptian presidential election Mali * 2012 Malian presidential election * 2012 Malian parliamentary electio ...

, but was eliminated in the first round of voting. He also stood unsuccessfully as a UKIP candidate in the

2016 London Assembly election The 2016 London Assembly election was an election held on 5 May 2016 to elect the members of the London Assembly. It took place on the same day as the London mayoral election and the United Kingdom local elections. Four parties had AMs in the ...

and the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peop ...

for the

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...

seat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wauchope, Piers Andrew Charles Living people 1956 births Leaders of the UK Independence Party British barristers Councillors in the London Borough of Camden Conservative Party (UK) councillors