James Carver

James Bruce Carver (born 15 August 1969) is a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands region for the UK Independence Party. He was elected in 2014,^[1] second on the list for the region, being elected together with Jill Seymour and Bill Etheridge.

Biography

Carver was educated at Orpington College. He runs a family umbrella business.

Political career

Carver stood in four general elections for UKIP: Orpington in 1997 (5th, 526 votes), Cheltenham in 2001 (6th, 482 votes), Preseli Pembrokeshire in 2005 (5th, 498 votes), and Stourbridge in 2015 (3rd, 7,774 votes). He was also sixth on the party list for London in the 1999 European election.

Carver is of Romanichal descent on his grandmother's side, giving rise to his interest in fostering better relationships with traveller communities, and is believed to be the only British Parliamentarian from a Romany background. He has also helped raise both money and awareness for the Scleroderma Society following the death of his first wife from scleroderma in 2009. He has a lifelong commitment to raise awareness of this relatively unknown connective tissue disease.

In April 2017, Carver resigned as UKIP's foreign affairs spokesperson following the party's promise to ban the wearing of the burqa in public. He said that “no one has the right to dictate what people should wear”, and that the policy undermined his ability to represent British Muslims in his constituency.^[2][3]

Elections contested

UK Parliament elections

European Parliament elections (Multi-member constituency; party list)

Member of the European Parliament

Carver was first elected to the European Parliament in 2014. He serves on the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Among the topics Carver has raised are:

• EU expansionism and military confrontation^{[4][5][6][7][8]}
• Economic issues and hardships arising from the eurozone ^[9]
• The role of the EU operating outside of international law either at home and abroad^[10]

He also supports:

• Fostering better understanding of the gypsy communities and how to integrate with mainstream society^[11]
• The banning of legal highs^[12]
• Recognition of Somaliland^[13][14]
• Addressing the rise of extremism in the Middle East and Europe^[15]

Carver is critical of EU’s policy in Israel, claiming that its actions do not comply with the founding treaties of the EU. He says structures built by the EU in a number of Beduin encampments outside Ma'aleh Adumim and on the Jerusalem-Jericho road bearing the EU logo are disrespectful of the rule of law: "EU member states would not allow such behavior within their own borders, nor would the EU endorse or find it anywhere within the European Union.^[16]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: James Carver

• Profile at European Parliament website
• James Carver's website
• Scleroderma Society