Julie Girling | |
---|---|
Leader of the Renew Party | |
In office 7 June 2019 –7 July 2020 | |
Preceded by | Annabel Mullin |
Succeeded by | James Clarke |
Member of the European Parliament | |
In office 14 July 2009 – 1 July 2019 | |
Preceded by | Neil Parish |
Succeeded by | Christina Jordan |
Constituency | South West England |
Personal details | |
Political party | Renew Party (2019–2022) |
Other political affiliations | Conservative (1992–2017) Independent (2017–2019) |
Residence(s) | Gloucestershire,England |
Alma mater | University of Liverpool |
Julie McCulloch Girling (born 21 December 1956) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England between 2009 and 2019,and leader of the Renew Party from 2019 to 2020.
Formerly a Conservative,she was suspended from the party in 2017 and in February 2018 joined the European People's Party group,while sitting as an independent. She supported Change UK in April 2019. In May 2019,she called on voters to support the Liberal Democrats,and in June was appointed as interim leader of the Renew Party.
Girling was educated at Twickenham County Grammar School,followed by the University of Liverpool from which she graduated BA in History and Politics in 1979. Her first job was as a graduate trainee with Ford Motors from 1979 to 1982. She then spent six years as a buyer with Argos,leaving in 1988 to become a marketing manager at Dixons. She then held similar positions with Boots and Halfords,which she left in 1993. She was a freelance trainer from 1995 to 2009. [1]
In 1981,she married Warren Glyn Girling;they have one son. [1]
Girling was a Conservative member of Cotswold District Council from 1999 to 2009,serving as Leader of the Council from 2003 to 2006. She also served on Gloucestershire County Council from 2000 to 2009,rising to become its Cabinet Member for the Environment. [1] She stepped down from both local government leadership positions in the run-up to the European Parliament elections of 2009, [2] at which she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for South West England. [1]
She and fellow MEP Richard Ashworth were suspended from the Conservative Party and had the whip withdrawn on 7 October 2017,after both supported a vote in Strasbourg stating that not enough progress had been made in the first-stage Brexit negotiations to allow discussion to move onto the trade-deal phase of the talks;however,they remained in the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) parliamentary group. [3] [4] On 28 February 2018,both MEPs left the ECR group to join the European People's Party group. [5]
On 16 April 2019,it was announced that both Girling and Ashworth had joined Change UK. Girling said she was "looking forward to being able to use my extensive experience as part of the Change UK team". [6] However,on 10 May,Girling encouraged Remain supporters in the South West to vote for the Liberal Democrats in the 2019 European Parliament election,saying they are "clearly the lead Remain party in the South West". [7] Girling and Change UK later stated that she had never been a member or one of their MEPs. [8] She did not stand for re-election in 2019.
On 7 June 2019 she became interim leader of the Renew Party. [9]
On 18 November 2019,and in her role as leader of Renew,she was one of four minor party representatives who took part in an election debate for LBC Radio ahead of the 2019 general election;the debate was chaired by Iain Dale. [10]
Girling announces her intention to step down from her leadership role in July 2020. James Clarke was elected to succeed her on 7 July 2020. [11]
Nigel Paul Farage is a British politician and broadcaster who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Clacton and Leader of Reform UK since 2024,having previously been its leader from 2019 to 2021. He was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016. Farage served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 1999 until the UK's withdrawal from the European Union (EU) in 2020.
Richard James Ashworth is a former British politician,who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 2004 until 2019. He formerly sat in the European Parliament for the Conservative Party,and was that party's leader there from March 2012 to November 2013. In April 2019 Ashworth defected to Change UK,but was not elected to the European Parliament at the 2019 election held the following month.
Annunziata Mary Rees-Mogg is a British freelance journalist whose focus is finance,economics,and European politics. She was a Brexit Party,then Conservative politician,during 2019 and into early 2020. Rees-Mogg has been a leader writer for The Daily Telegraph,deputy editor of MoneyWeek,and editor of the European Journal,a Eurosceptic magazine owned by Bill Cash's think tank,the European Foundation.
The European Conservatives and Reformists Group is a soft Eurosceptic,anti-federalist political group of the European Parliament. The ECR is the parliamentary group of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party European political party,but also includes MEPs from other European parties and MEPs without European party affiliation.
Edward McMillan-Scott is a British politician. He was a pro-EU Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber constituency from 1984 until 2014. He was the last and one of the longest-serving UK Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament 2004–2014,holding its Human Rights and Democracy portfolio throughout. After losing his seat as an MEP he became active in campaigning against Brexit and coordinates the largest pro EU forum in the UK.
The European Conservatives and Reformists Party,formerly known as Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists and Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe,is a conservative,soft Eurosceptic European political party with a main focus on reforming the European Union (EU) on the basis of Eurorealism,as opposed to total rejection of the EU (anti-EU-ism).
The 2014 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2014 European Parliament election,held on Thursday 22 May 2014,coinciding with the 2014 local elections in England and Northern Ireland. In total,73 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation. England,Scotland and Wales use a closed-list party list system of PR,while Northern Ireland used the single transferable vote (STV).
Margaret Lucille Jeanne Parker is a British former politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East Midlands region between 2014 and 2019.
The Alliance EPP:European People's Party UK,also known as UK EPP and the 4 Freedoms Party,is a pro-European Union,centre-right political party in the United Kingdom. It first contested an election at the 2014 European Parliament elections.
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy was a Eurosceptic and populist political group in the European Parliament. The EFDD group was a continuation for the Eighth European Parliament of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group that existed during the Seventh European Parliament,with significant changes to group membership.
The 2019 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election. It was held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019,after all the other EU countries had voted. This was the United Kingdom's final participation in a European Parliament election before leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020,and was also the last election to be held under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 before its repeal under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and was the first European election in the United Kingdom to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections since 1999. This was the first of two national elections that would be held in the United Kingdom in 2019 with the 2019 general election being held six months later in December 2019.
Richard James Sunley Tice is a British businessman and politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Boston and Skegness and Deputy Leader of Reform UK since 2024,having previously been the chairman of the party from 2019 to 2021 and again briefly in 2024. Since 2023,he has also been Reform UK's energy and foreign-policy spokesman. He became the leader of Reform UK in March 2021,but stood down in June 2024 and was succeeded by Nigel Farage.
The Renew Party was a minor centrist political party in the United Kingdom. It was set up in 2017 to provide an alternative for moderate voters in the wake of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. The party described itself as wanting to reform existing political structures and did not identify with either left-wing or right-wing ideologies. It welcomed candidates and members from non-political backgrounds.
Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Nigel Farage has served as the party's leader since June 2024 and Richard Tice has served as the party's deputy leader since July 2024. The party currently has five members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons and one member of the London Assembly. Following Farage's resumption of the leadership during the 2024 general election,there was a sharp increase in support for the party. In the election it was the third largest party by popular vote,with 14.3 per cent of the vote.
Change UK,founded as The Independent Group (TIG) and later The Independent Group for Change,was a British centrist,pro–European Union political party,which lasted for ten months in 2019. Established in February and formally recognized as a party in May,it was dissolved in December after all its MPs lost their seats at that year's general election. Its principal aim was a second withdrawal referendum on European Union membership,in which it would campaign to remain in the EU. On economic issues it expressed a commitment to the social market economy.
Caroline Jane Voaden is a British politician and international journalist,who has served as Member of Parliament for South Devon since 2024 for the Liberal Democrats,having previously served as the party's leader in the European Parliament from 2019 to 2020,and was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South West England and Gibraltar constituency from 2019 to 2020.
Dorien Rookmaker is a Dutch politician of the More Direct Democracy (MDD) party,who served as a Member of the European Parliament between 2020 and 2024. Initially serving as a non-attached member,she joined the European Conservatives and Reformists in December 2021. She was a member of the Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism.
The 2019 European Parliament election for the election of the delegation from the United Kingdom was held on 23 May 2019. These were the last elections to the European Parliament to be held before Brexit.
This article lists the election results of Change UK in UK parliamentary elections and in elections to the European Parliament.