James Carver


James Bruce Carver is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands region between 2014 and 2019. He was elected in 2014 for the UK Independence Party, second on the list for the region, being elected together with Jill Seymour and Bill Etheridge. He resigned from UKIP on 28 May 2018, stating that he had become "out of kilter" with the party.

Biography

Carver was born on 15 August 1969 in Farnborough, Kent and was educated at St John Rigby Catholic College and Orpington College of Further Education. He runs a family business making umbrellas for bookmakers at racecourses.

Political career

Carver stood in four general elections for UKIP: Orpington in 1997, Cheltenham in 2001, Preseli Pembrokeshire in 2005, and Stourbridge in 2015. 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. He believes that he is 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.
In August 2017, Carver endorsed Henry Bolton in the UKIP leadership election, citing his credentials to restructure the party. Following the election of Bolton as leader of UKIP, Carver was appointed assistant deputy leader.
In May 2018, Carver resigned from UKIP and then sat as an independent MEP until the end of the Eighth European Parliament.

Elections contested

UK Parliament elections
Date of electionConstituencyPartyVotesPercentage of votesResult
1997 general electionOrpingtonUKIP5260.9Not elected
2001 general electionCheltenhamUKIP4821.2Not elected
2005 general electionPreseli PembrokeshireUKIP4981.3Not elected
2015 general electionStourbridgeUKIP7,77416.9Not elected

European Parliament elections
Date of electionRegionPartyVotesPercentage of votesResult
1999 European electionLondonUKIP61,7415.4Not elected
2014 European electionWest MidlandsUKIP428,01031.5Elected

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:
He also supports:
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."
On 28 May 2018, Carver resigned from UKIP to sit as an independent MEP.