John Stuart Agnew (born 30 August 1949) is a British politician who served as
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 the
East of England region for 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) from
2009 to
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
.
Early life and career
Agnew was born in
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, and educated at
Gordonstoun School
Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland. It is named after the estate owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 17th century; the school now uses this estate as its campus. It is located ...
and the
Royal Agricultural College
;(from Virgil's Georgics)"Caring for the Fieldsand the Beasts"
, established = 2013 - University status – College
, type = Public
, president = King Charles
, vice_chancellor = Peter McCaffery
, students ...
. During the 1970s he worked in
Rhodesia as a soil conservation officer, as well as being a reserve in the Rhodesian Army. A long-time UKIP member, he is a
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
farmer who formerly represented Norfolk on the
NFU Council.
Political career
He sits on the
.
He was the UKIP candidate in
Mid Norfolk at the
2001 general election, in
Norfolk North
Norfolk North was a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1904. It was located in the provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It was created by the Br ...
at the
2005 general election, and in
Broadland
Broadland is a local government district in Norfolk, England, named after the Norfolk Broads. The population of the local authority district taken at the 2011 Census was 124,646. Its council is based in Thorpe St Andrew.
In 2013, Broadland w ...
at the
2010 and
2015 general elections.
As UKIP's
Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Agnew has described
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
science as "the global warming scam". In the European Parliament in 2015, he stated that plants need
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
as food, so "if you succeed in decarbonising Europe, our crops will have no natural gas to grow from".
Richard A. Betts of the
Met Office described this as a misunderstanding, since cutting emissions did not mean reducing existing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
In the
2017 UKIP leadership election, he was the running-mate of
Anne Marie Waters
Anne Marie Dorothy Waters (born 24 August 1977) is a far-right politician and activist in the United Kingdom. She founded and led the anti-Islam party For Britain until its dissolution in 2022. She is also the director of Sharia Watch UK, an or ...
.
In April 2019, Agnew was appointed Deputy Leader of UKIP in 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 ...
following the resignation of
Ray Finch
Raymond Finch (born 2 June 1963) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England between 2014 and 2019.
The fourth named candidate on the UK Independence Party (UKIP) list for the South Ea ...
, and it was reported that he spoke to the
Springbok Club The London Swinton Circle (otherwise known as the Swinton Circle) is a long-running British right-wing pressure group. The group states that its purpose is to uphold traditional conservative and Unionist principles.
The group formed part of a numb ...
.
Agnew lost his seat at 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 ...
, when UKIP dropped to seventh position with 3.42% of the regional vote.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agnew, Stuart
1949 births
Living people
People educated at Gordonstoun
Alumni of the Royal Agricultural University
UK Independence Party parliamentary candidates
UK Independence Party MEPs
MEPs for England 2009–2014
MEPs for England 2014–2019
20th-century English farmers
Politicians from Norwich
British Eurosceptics
21st-century English farmers