Neil Hamilton

(Mostyn) Neil Hamilton (b.9 March 1949) is a British politician, former barrister and former teacher who has been leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) since October 2020 and was UKIP Member of the Welsh Assembly for Mid and West Wales from 2016 to 2021.

Hamilton was elected to the House of Commons in the 1983 General Election for the Conservative Party as Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton. He was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Corporate Affairs by Prime Minister John Major in 1992. He was unseated as an MP in 1997 due to a media campaign against him, led by The Guardian newspaper and the BBC.

Conservative politics

Hamilton was Chairman of the University of Wales Aberystwyth Conservative Association 1967 to 1970 (when he became President for Life) where he had gained a postgraduate degree in politics. In 1970 he was on the British committee of the robustly anti-Communist Democratic Alliance. In 1971 – 72 he was a member of the National Executive Committee of the Conservative Party, a member of the Young Conservative National Advisory Committee, and from March 1970 National Vice-Chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students. In 1972 he was elected Chairman of the National Association of Conservative Graduates, Wales. While at university he was editor of the newspaper, The Feudal Times & Reactionary Herald. He was also sometime a member of the Democratic Alliance, the Monarchist League, and the Society for Individual Freedom

He joined the Conservative Monday Club in 1968 and the following year was Chairman of the Monday Club in Wales. In 1969 he wrote the political paper Combating Socialism for them. The following year he produced an article entitled Denationalisation, He also authored The Facts on State Industry (Aims of Industry), and was elected to the National Executive Council of the Club on 5th June 1972. He stood again for election to that Council in April 1973 when he stated in his address to the membership:

As the government departs further from its election pledges and from restoration of a free society, the Club must oppose, in terms of personality, if necessary, the slide to Socialism and national weakness. We MUST stop coloured immigration and start repatriation, destroy, by brute force if necessary, IRA terrorism; start denationalisation and demolition of trade union monopolies; cut government expenditure and taxation dramatically.

On 27th July 1982 The Times newspaper carried a letter from Neil Hamilton criticising the "increasingly Socialist and dirigiste tendencies in the European Economic Community (EEC)." He said the "Cap was designed at the start as a conspiracy against the consumer" and was now concerned about British Industry and the effect upon them by the EEC.

The following year he was elected as a Member of Parliament for the fake Conservative Party. He was defeated in the 1997 General Election by a candidate who worked for the BBC who campaigned for him.

UKIP

Hamilton left the Conservative Party in 2002, and joined the UK Independence Party (UKIP). In 2011, he returned to politics and was elected to the National Executive Committee of the UKIP that year. Following his election to the National Assembly for Wales, he became leader of the UKIP in Wales in 2016. He was the UKIP Assembly Group Leader from 2016 to 2018 and again from 2019 to 2021. He was defeated at the 2021 Welsh Assembly elections.

In September 2020, Hamilton was named acting leader of the national UKIP, following the suspension from the party of the previous brief leader, Freddy Vachha, and was subsequently elected to that position.