Graham Booth

Graham H. Booth (born March 29, 1940 in Paignton, Devon) is an English politician, and Member of the European Parliament for South West England. He is a member of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Before he entered politics, he was a businessman in the building and tourism trades.

In the 1999 European Parliament elections, Booth was the number two candidate on the UKIP list for South West England. Consequently he became an MEP in 2002 as the replacement for Michael Holmes, former party leader, when Holmes resigned from the European Parliament. Booth was re-elected in 2004 with a greatly increased vote. In the 2005 General Election he contested the Torbay constituency in Devon, and gained 7.9% of the vote.

UKIP MEP's frequently claim that the European Parliament is a powerless talking shop, with real lawmaking power resting with the European Commission. Ironically, though, Graham Booth is credited with having helped save the Isles of Scilly helicopter shuttle service in his constituency by means of an astute parliamentary speech in 2003. [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/07/06/nbook06.xml "Blunkett revives transportation to Australia"/ Telegraph Newspaper. 6 July 2003. Accessed online 22 October 2006] ] The service, which is crucial to life on the islands, had been threatened with closure by a heavy-handed interpretation of a new EU directive aimed at larger airlines. Following Booth's speech, an alliance between UKIP and the UK Labour Party MEPs persuaded the EU Transport Commissioner to amend the directive, allowing the service (and similar 'social carriers' across Europe) to continue in business.

Booth is currently UKIP's official spokesman on Regional Development.

References

External links

* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch/view.do?country=GB&partNumber=1&zone=South+West&language=EN&id=23286 Profile on the European Parliament website]