Ashley Mote

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Ashley Mote (born January 25, 1936, London) is an Independent Member of the European Parliament for South East England.^[1]^[2] He was elected in June 2004 as a representative of the United Kingdom Independence Party but has since had the party whip removed. In 2007 he joined the Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty group within the Parliament.

He previously worked in the marketing industry, and has published two political books - Vigilance - A Defence of British Liberty (2001) about the European Union, and OverCrowded Britain: Our Immigration Crisis Exposed^[3] and "has researched EU fraud for many years". In 2006 he gave evidence to the House of Lords enquiry into the EU's financial management of public funds.

Ashley Mote is also an award-winning cricket writer and is the author of The Glory Days of Cricket (1997) and John Nyren's "The Cricketers of my Time" (1998). He is president of the revived Hambledon Club which raises money for colts cricket.

The UKIP removed their whip from Ashley Mote on 15 July 2004 after learning that he faces trial over allegations of housing benefit fraud. Mote failed to tell his party managers of the impending court case, and it only came to their attention when an article appeared in the The Daily Telegraph a few days after the European Union's election.^[4] The newspaper reported that he was facing nine charges of false accounting and one of making a false representation. A High Court ruling bans all further public comment until such time as the matter is determined in open court.

In 2005, to promote Accountability in the European Union, Hans Peter Martin, Paul van Buitenen (Europa Transparant) and Ashley Mote decided to co-operate under the name Platform for Transparency (PfT).

In January 2007, Ashley Mote became a founding member of the new right-wing European Parliament group, "Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty".