- Richard Ashworth
Richard James Ashworth (born
September 17 ,1947 inFolkestone ) is aMember of the European Parliament forSouth East England for the Conservative Party. He is married with three daughters. Richard was educated at The King's School, Canterbury and studied agriculture and management at Seale-Hayne College in Devon.He has been the chairman of a further education college (Plumpton in East Sussex) for a number of years as well as serving on several public bodies in the education sector. His interests include music, theatre, sport, aviation and country pursuits.
He is the Conservative Spokesman on Budgets in the European Parliament and Conservative Chief Whip.
He was a parliamentary candidate for North Devon in 1997, and for the South East region for the 1999 European Parliament elections.
Before being elected in 2004 he was a dairy farmer in East Sussex for over thirty years and during this time operated his own dairy business. He has also acted as chairman of United Milk Plc and of NFU Corporate.
He was a member of the Minister of Agriculture's food chain advisory committee.
In 2005, Richard published a letter calling for the Conservative Party to remain affiliated to the
European People's Party .On June 6 2008, Ashworth was appointed Conservative
Chief Whip by acting Leader of the Conservative MEPsPhilip Bushill-Matthews . Following the resignation of his predecessor,Den Dover for paying his family £750,000 over 9 years for work they had done for him. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7439351.stm]External links
* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch/view.do?country=GB&partNumber=1&zone=South+East&language=EN&id=28132 European Parliament website]
* [http://www.richardashworth.com Official Website]
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