Petrina Holdsworth

Petrina Holdsworth

Petrina Alexandra Holdsworth born in the UK in 1952 is an English politician, formerly National Chairman of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). She is married with one son and two step-daughters.

She was a barrister by profession and in the late 1970s worked in the Inner London Magistrates Courts as a Deputy Clerk to the Justices, she went onto serve as a Principal Crown Prosecutor with the CPS and then returned to private practice in London specialising in Crime and Industrial Tribunal work. She later trained in private detective work.

She joined the UKIP in the 1990s,she represented UKIP as a candidate in two General Elections and stood against Nicholas Soames in Mid-Sussex in 2001, where she was the local constituency chairman, and Michael Howard QC (then leader of the Conservative Party) in Folkestone in 2005.

She was elected to the UKIP NEC in 2004 and became Chairman of the NEC and National Chairman in that year. She appeared on Question Time and the Politics Show amongst many other TV appearances.

During her time as Chairman she wrote "Bye,Bye English Legal System" which appeared on the UKIP website.

In October 2005, Holdsworth resigned from the party Chairmanship and NEC, she agreed to return a day later after undertakings were given by the then leader Roger Knapman in relation to the behaviour of one of UKIP's MEPs. However, following further internal difficulties she resigned again on the 15th, just days ahead of the party conference.

In May 2006, Holdsworth announced her intention to run for leader of UKIP. However, she later withdrew her candidacy due to her husband's ill health.

In the 2009 European Parliament Elections, she ran as lead candidate in South East England for the newly formed United Kingdom First Party whose leader was Robin Page.^[1] UK First Party put candidates forward in three Regions where they received over 74,000 votes.

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