Paul Nuttall

Paul Andrew Nuttall MEP
Deputy Leader of the UK Independence Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 November 2010
Leader	Nigel Farage
Preceded by	David Campbell Bannerman
Chairman of the UK Independence Party
In office 8 September 2008 – 8 November 2010
Preceded by	John Whittaker
Succeeded by	Steve Crowther
Member of the European Parliament for North West England
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 July 2009
Preceded by	John Whittaker
Personal details
Born	(1976-11-30) 30 November 1976 Bootle, Merseyside, England
Political party	UK Independence Party
Alma mater	Edge Hill University Liverpool Hope University University of Central Lancashire
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Website	http://www.paulnuttallmep.com

Paul Andrew Nuttall (born 30 November 1976, Bootle) is a British politician, the Deputy Leader of the UK Independence Party and Member of the European Parliament for North West England.

Education and early career

Nuttall was educated at Savio High School and studied for A-Levels at Hugh Baird College in Bootle, Liverpool, followed by an HND in Sports Science at North Lincolnshire College. He went on to gain a BA degree in History from Edge Hill University and an MA from Liverpool Hope University, specialising in British Edwardian politics. He earned a Certificate of Education from the University of Central Lancashire.

Between his education and going into politics, Nuttall lived and worked in Barcelona before returning to Merseyside to lecture on history at Hugh Baird College and then at Liverpool Hope University.

In 2015, while appearing on BBC TV's Question Time, he revealed that he was a survivor of the Hillsborough disaster of 1989.^[1]

Political career

Nuttall joined the UK Independence Party in 2004 and formed the South Sefton branch in 2005 to enable the party to contest elections in north Merseyside.^[2] This branch has gone on to be one of the best performing branches for UKIP in the North West region and Nuttall continues to be involved with the branch today. Between 2006-07, he worked as an assistant in the European Parliament to John Whittaker, MEP.

In 2008, Nuttall was appointed as Secretary to the fledgling Young Independence, the youth wing of UKIP for the under 35s, a position he held until Young Independence were able to hold their first internal elections at the UKIP Spring Conference in 2009. In September 2008, Nuttall was appointed to his first major national role as Chairman of the UK Independence Party.^[3] Nuttall held this role through both the highly successful European Election in 2009 where he was elected to MEP and the 2010 General Election where UKIP polled over 900,000 votes before leaving the post in November 2010. Following the election of Nigel Farage MEP as party leader, Nuttall was appointed in November 2010 to the position of Deputy Leader of the UK independence Party ^[4] and from May 2011 was also appointed Head of Policy within the party. He is the youngest person to date to be appointed as Chairman or Deputy Leader of the UKIP, and is the party's youngest ever MEP.

Nuttall was found to place 736th out of 756 MEPs in terms of attendance in the European Parliament.^[5] Nuttall and UKIP defended the low attendance record with their party opposing the UK membership of the EU. Nuttall stated on his website "I have no interest sitting all day in Brussels committees enacting job-killing, democracy-destroying legislation inspired by the EU.".

Elections

The first election that Nuttall contested was the Parliamentary seat of Bootle at the 2005 General Election. He achieved a result of 4.1% compared to a UKIP national vote share of 2.3%.^[6]

At the 2008 English Local Council Elections, Nuttall contested the Derby Ward within Bootle and achieved 38% share of the vote, coming second behind Labour.^[7]

In 2009, Nuttall led UKIP's North West list and was elected to the European Parliament. At the 2010 General Election, Paul Nuttall contested Bootle a second time and increased the UKIP share of the vote to 6.1%.^[8]

Following the High Court decision to declare the election result for the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency null and void, Nuttall was selected to contest the Parliamentary by-election held on 13 January 2011. Labour candidate Debbie Abrahams retained the seat for Labour. In 2014, Nuttall was re-elected as an MEP following the European Elections and is now one of three UKIP MEPs representing the North West of England.

Political positions

As a UKIP MEP, Nuttall campaigns for the UK to withdraw from the European Union and restore power back to Westminster. In line with UKIP policy, Nuttall is opposed to political correctness and is a member of the Campaign Against Political Correctness. He is also in favour of strengthened links with the Commonwealth and is a member of the United Commonwealth Society.^[9][10] He is highly involved in the UKIP Save The Pub campaign, which highlights the issues surrounded the increase in pub closures in England. As part of this, he is strongly opposed to a blanket smoking ban enforced on all pubs and believes that individual landlords should choose whether to make the pub smoke-free or not.^[11]

A Roman Catholic, Nuttall opposes abortion and is a member of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) and has spoken at a number of their events. He is also well known for his stances regarding crime and anti-social behaviour. He has called for tougher prison sentences for persistent re-offenders, drug dealers and violent criminals and for an increase in prison capacity in his region. Controversially, he signed the e-petition which calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty for child and serial killers.^[12]

While Nuttall is a committed Unionist, he has called for the introduction of an English Parliament ^[13] and presented the new UKIP devolution policy at the annual conference at Eastbourne in September 2011. He is a climate change sceptic. Nuttall is opposed to the construction of wind farms^[14] and believes in order to maintain energy security and reduce fuel poverty, nuclear power is the only long term alternative to traditional carbon forms of fuel.

As UKIP education spokesperson he advocated in 2014 that sex and relationship education for children under the age of 11 should be scrapped. He favours banning burqas in public places, citing the use of CCTV and security as his primary reason to take this stance.^[15]

He advocates that Gibraltar be allocated an MP to represent them in Westminster.^[16] He has voiced concerns about Sharia courts operating in the UK.^[17]

He has called for the repeal of the Hunting act.^[18] He has been a long-term opponent of Road Tolls, especially Tunnel tolls.^[19]

Media

Nuttall is one of the UKIP’s media spokesmen and regularly appears on national radio, including Radio Five Live and Talk Sport. He has appeared several times on BBC Question Time and its sister radio programme Any Questions?.

Criticism

In episode two of the third series of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, Lee satirically used reductio ad absurdum as a comedic device applied to Nuttall's statement that Bulgarians "...need to ensure that your brightest stay and make your own country economically prosperous instead of coming to the UK to serve tea and coffee".^[20][21][22]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paul Nuttall.

• Official website

Party political offices
Preceded by John Whittaker	Chairman of the UK Independence Party 2008–2010	Succeeded by Steve Crowther
Preceded by David Campbell Bannerman	Deputy Leader of the UK Independence Party 2010–present	Incumbent

UK Independence Party   Leadership Leaders Alan Sked Craig Mackinlay (acting) Michael Holmes Jeffrey Titford Roger Knapman Nigel Farage The Lord Pearson of Rannoch Jeffrey Titford (acting) Nigel Farage Deputy Leaders Craig Mackinlay Graham Booth Mike Nattrass David Campbell Bannerman Christopher Monckton Paul Nuttall Chairmen Nigel Farage Mike Nattrass David Lott Petrina Holdsworth David Campbell Bannerman John Whittaker Paul Nuttall Steve Crowther Treasurer Stuart Wheeler Andrew Reid   Organisation Internal elections 2006 leadership (Farage) 2009 leadership (Pearson) 2010 leadership (Farage) NEC elections Organisation UKIP HQ MyUKIP Young Independence UKIP Councillors Association International affiliations Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy History National Electoral Performance Anti-Federalist League Breakaway groups Veritas New Deal One London UK Independence Group We Demand a Referendum Now Popular Alliance An Independence from Europe   Political representation British Parliament House of Commons (MPs) Douglas Carswell Mark Reckless House of Lords (Peers) Malcolm Pearson David Stevens David Verney European Parliament (MEPs) Stuart Agnew Tim Aker Jonathan Arnott Gerard Batten Louise Bours James Carver David Coburn Jane Collins William Dartmouth Bill Etheridge Nigel Farage Ray Finch Nathan Gill Roger Helmer Mike Hookem Diane James Paul Nuttall Patrick O'Flynn Margot Parker Julia Reid Jill Seymour Steven Woolfe Devolved chambers Northern Ireland Assembly (MLAs) David McNarry Former MEPs Marta Andreasen Janice Atkinson Amjad Bashir Godfrey Bloom Graham Booth John Bufton David Campbell Bannerman Derek Clark Trevor Colman Michael Holmes Robert Kilroy-Silk Roger Knapman Ashley Mote Mike Nattrass Nikki Sinclaire Jeffrey Titford John Whittaker Tom Wise