| Christopher Gill RD | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Ludlow |
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| In office 11 June 1987 – 7 June 2001 |
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| Preceded by | Eric Cockeram |
| Succeeded by | Matthew Green |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 October 1936 Wolverhampton |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | UKIP (previously Conservative) |
Christopher John Frederick Gill RD ACA (born 28 October 1936) is a politician in the United Kingdom, and a member of the National Executive Committee of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). He is also the current President of The Freedom Association (TFA). A former Conservative Party Member of Parliament, he was one of the Maastricht Rebels of the mid-1990s.
Gill was born in Wolverhampton where he was a local councillor and was educated locally at Birchfield Preparatory School and then Shrewsbury School. His national service was in the Royal Navy, serving aboard HMS Modeste and HMS Birmingham. He is a director of his family's sausage-making business, F.A. Gill Ltd.
Gill served as Conservative MP for Ludlow from 1987 to 2001, when he stepped down. He was known as the "Butcher from Ludlow", due to his family company being a meat processing firm. During the Maastricht Rebellion, Food Minister Nicholas Soames threatened to: "close every abattoir you own". He had the Conservative Whip withdrawn over the EC Finance Bill on November 28, 1994.
As a constituency MP, Gill fought against the closure of local cottage hospitals. Gill was also known for being an expert on areas of European Union legislation.
During the course of Parliamentary sessions up to 2001, Gill voted in favour of giving greater autonomy to schools, against removing hereditary peers from the House of Lords, and against equal rights for homosexuals.[1]
He served as Chairman of The Freedom Association from 2001, before becoming its President in 2007.
In 2006, Gill announced that he had joined the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), having endorsed the Party's policies at the European Parliament election, 2004 and resigned his membership of the Conservatives shortly afterwards. In 2007, he was elected to UKIP's National Executive Committee. In 2010 he stood for Ludlow as a UKIP candidate, coming 4th and losing his deposit though almost tripling their 2005 vote.
Gill's autobiography is entitled Whip's Nightmare: Diary of a Maastricht Rebel.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Eric Cockeram |
Member of Parliament for Ludlow 1987–2001 |
Succeeded by Matthew Green |
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