Early life and career
Edward Francis Pugh was born on 20 October 1960 in Pembury, Kent, England. Both his parents were Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party activists. His older brother, businessman Henry Pugh, died in 2013. His early education was at the Independent school (United Kingdom), independent Rugby School. Pugh studied Economics and Politics at Durham University (Hatfield College, Durham, Hatfield College). As a student he played cricket alongside Tim Curtis and Steve Henderson (cricketer), Steve Henderson and later played for the 2nd XI at Warwickshire County Cricket Club, Warwickshire. He started his financial career as a broker for the former American investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1983, and later worked in the wealth management division for six years for the British investment bank Barclays. Pugh has also worked as the managing director for the Futures exchange, futures division of NEX Group, ICAP. He is the director of PughView Ltd, an independent strategy consulting, strategy consultancy.Political career
In the 1997 United Kingdom general election, 1997 general election, he contested the Richmond Park (UK Parliament constituency), Richmond Park constituency on behalf of the Eurosceptic Referendum Party. Pugh was fourth in the election with 1,467 votes (2.6%). He voted for Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election (UK), 2015 Labour Party leadership election. Pugh voted for Brexit in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. He supports Brexit as he felt that the European Union was undemocratic, and Protectionism, protectionist. In the 2019 European Parliament election, 2019 European parliamentary election, Pugh stood as a candidate for the Brexit Party in the Yorkshire and the Humber (European Parliament constituency), Yorkshire and Humber constituency. He was third on his Party-list proportional representation, party's list, and was elected as one of its three MEPs in the constituency. In the European parliament, Pugh was a member of the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. In August 2020, Pugh argued that the UK should change its foreign policy towards the EU by "doing everything we can to undermine the EU economically, militarily and politically."References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pugh, Jake 1960 births Living people Brexit Party MEPs MEPs for England 2019–2020 People from Pembury Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham People educated at Rugby School