Roger Helmer is a Conservative Member of the European parliament, and is also Honorary Chairman of The Freedom Association. He was first elected to the European parliament in 1999, and has been kept very busy ever since representing the interests of his 4.1 million constituents from in the East Midlands.In June 2004 he was re-elected for a second term, and currently sits on three committees: Environment, Unemployment and Petitions. During the 1999/04 parliament, Roger was also a very active member of the “interparliamentary delegation” to ASEAN (the nations of South East Asia), plus Korea. In the new parliament these two areas have been split. Roger remains a member of the ASEAN delegation, and also sits as an alternative member on the Korea delegation. During the course of his long business career before 1999, he spent a total of twelve years running businesses in East and South East Asia as a resident, so he brings a wealth of detailed knowledge of the region to his work on these interparliamentary delegations.Born in 1944, Roger attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Southampton (1955 – 62), and then won a State Scholarship to Churchill College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics, graduating in 1965 with a B.A. and subsequently an M.A.
He started his business career in 1965 with Procter & Gamble in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, going on to hold senior marketing and general management appointments in a range of companies, including well-known multinationals like Readers Digest, National Semiconductor, Coats Viyella and the whisky firm United Distillers, now part of the drinks conglomerate Diageo. During the course of his business career he lived and worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Korea, and ran businesses in the Philippines, Vietnam, Guam and Saipan.
In September 1998, following his selection as the #1 candidate for the Conservative Party in the East Midlands, Roger left his job as Managing Director of a Leicester textile company, Donisthorpe Ltd (the UK subsidiary of a French textile multinational), to campaign full time ahead of the 1999 euro-elections, and took up his new role as an MEP immediately afterwards. He has found his decades of business experience invaluable in the European parliament, not least in helping him to fight the battle against the tide of intrusive and prescriptive EU regulation and red tape which is causing such damage to economic competitiveness across Europe.
With like minded-colleagues, Roger has developed close relationships with conservative political groups in the USA, and has been a regular speaker at American conferences. He was recently appointed “Adam Smith Scholar” by ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council.
He has earned a reputation – and even the grudging respect of political opponents – for his clear, consistent and forthright approach to the question of Britain’s relationship with the EU. He believes that most of his constituents would be happy with the sort of relationship the British people thought they had voted for in the 1975 referendum – a relationship based on free trade and voluntary cooperation. He is adamantly opposed to further EU integration, and is a powerful advocate of the Conservative policy of renegotiating the EU treaties so as to return powers to member states. He believes the British people have the right, the ability, the will, and the manifest destiny to govern themselves.
Whenever Roger has a spare Sunday at home in the East Midlands, he enjoys rural life and walking the dog. He and his wife Sara share their home in rural Leicestershire with two horses, two cats and a greyhound!
Roger has published two books on European issues, “Straight Talking on Europe” in 2000, followed by “A Declaration of Independence” in 2002.
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Roger,
someone on ConHome said I should come here to ask you, so I have.
Given, that the Conservatives are supposed to be leaving the EPP-ED grouping in 2009, and given that the Tory grassroots aren’t going to let David Cameron meet fellow centre-right leaders at EPP meetings, I presume that MEPs like yourself and Dan Hannan are busy rounding up potential partners from around Europe. How’s it going? Have we got lots of willing eurosceptics champing at the bit to join up with the Conservatives?
Comment by Adam June 20, 2007 @ 1:41 pmThere are some good people out there, but for obvious reasons it is not too wise to name names at this stage. However, we have a problem: we have gone to these poeple four times (or is it five?) under successive Party leaders, and said “If we left the EPP, would you join us?”. And like the little boy who cried wolf, we’re losing credibility. The attitude now is “Show us the colour of your money. Leave the EPP, and then we can talk”. But we have made one step forward. The federasts used to say “We can’t leave the EPP and join Jean Marie le Penn and Allesandra Mussolini”. This was always a nonsense, since if we joined the Unattached (i.e. the “None of the Above” group) we would not have any necessary connection with other members in that group. But now the hard right have gone away and formed a new group, so that objection, spurious as it was, has gone way.
Comment by Roger Helmer MEP June 25, 2007 @ 8:40 pmRoger,
Comment by A American Fan March 8, 2008 @ 6:01 amI visited your site of another. I am a American from Florida and I am well aware of your honors here that you greatly achieved. I keep up with the British News since my Wife is from England as well. I was advised on a recent event in which I will not mention regarding you honorably stepping out on after further research and in the best interest and I want to thank you personally for your overall decision in the matter. I wish you the very best in your political position and your goals. If you can view my e-mail off your site and e-mail me, I will gladly direct some information to you that may spark your overall interest. God Bless you and best of luck.
Mr Helmer,
I’d like to congratulate you on an excellent and informative website.
I agree wholeheartedly with your views on climate and it is refreshing to see someone such as yourself speak openly and honestly on the subject, especially when many view politics in an increasingly disassociated manner.
RFID cards are another concern that many simply ignore and do so at their peril my concern here is that new technology such as contact-less credit cards along with the new passport requirements will introduce it anyway by stealth and both systems are reliant on central database technology which is great cause for alarm.
Anyway – I’d just like to say thanks for your efforts and that there are just a few politicians left who inspire confidence such as yourself.
Comment by Paul December 11, 2008 @ 2:47 amWest Midland and indeed the whole UK would be better off out of the EU and a English Parliament to stand up for English Affairs.
England would be better off with some English Democrats
Comment by Oliver Healey February 7, 2009 @ 10:58 amIf I vote Conservative in trhe European elections will you undertake to publish all your expense claims on-line so that I can see how my money is being spent?
Comment by Keith Rands-Allen May 25, 2009 @ 6:24 pmHow can anybody vote for you or the Conservatives in future when you have just blurted out plainly homophobic comments to the media? Homophobia is an appalling reality and you have just gone and demonstrated to the British public that YOU are a homophobe. This is appalling.
For your information one in five lesbian and gay people have been victims of homophobic aggression over the past three years. This was revealed by a 2008 survey of UK hate crime. Experiences of homophobia ranged from beatings and sexual assault to persistent harassment and insults, often from neighbours and colleagues. The gay rights charity Stonewall said the lives of Britain’s 3.6 million lesbian and gay people were overshadowed by the fear of homophobic crime. It commissioned YouGov to carry out the first comprehensive national survey into the problem, questioning more than 1,700 lesbian, gay and bisexual people. The poll found a homophobic crime or incident had been experienced by 12.5% over the past year and 20% over the past three years. One in six of the victims had been physically assaulted and one in eight had been subjected to unwanted sexual contact. Almost nine in 10 had experienced homophobic insults and harassment. Three-quarters of the victims had not reported the incident to the police, often because they did not think the complaint would be investigated. Only 1% of hate crimes that were reported to the police resulted in a conviction. Two-thirds of victims who reported incidents to the police were not offered advice or referred to support services. The charity was prompted to commission the poll by the murder of Jody Dobrowski, a 24-year-old assistant bar manager who was beaten to death in a homophobic assault on Clapham Common, south London, in 2005. Almost half the lesbian and gay people in the survey thought they were at greater risk of being physically assaulted than a heterosexual. One third said they altered their behaviour so as not to appear lesbian or gay in an attempt to avoid becoming a victim of crime. One in 10 said being a victim of crime was their biggest worry, more than being ill or having financial debts. The survey showed lesbian and gay people were more likely to
Comment by Edward Bentley August 10, 2009 @ 8:05 pmreport crimes in areas where the police were gay-friendly employers. Hampshire, South Wales and Lothian were praised for taking homophobic hate crimes seriously. Stonewall said all police officers should be trained to recognise homophobic hate crimes. Other recommendations included stronger action against homophobic bullying in schools and a zero-tolerance policy against bullying in the workplace. Ben Summerskill, the chief executive of Stonewall, said: “This was the first statistically significant national survey into the extent and nature of homophobic hate crime. The experiences it has uncovered are shocking. We hope the whole criminal justice system will now rise to the challenges that this research poses.” The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said the findings would help the police improve the service. Mike Cunningham, the deputy chief constable of Lancashire and Acpo’s spokesman on equality, said: “It cannot be acceptable that a third of victims do not report incidents to the police because they do not think the police would, or could, do anything about it. Neither is it right that two thirds of those who reported incidents to the police were not offered or referred to advice or support services. The findings offer the service a real opportunity to make real improvements.
Dear Mr Helmer,
The major parties now recognise the significance of the “gay” vote.I doubt that there is a single gay voter who has not been deeply offended by your comments on “the non-existence of homophobia”.I trust your party leader will take note of the millions of UK gay votes you have just lost to the Conservative Party for the forthcoming General Election.
You seemed to have worked around the world.Is a move to Poland now opportune?
Comment by Christopher Wyatt August 11, 2009 @ 12:05 pm