Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament

The leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament was the most senior Conservative member of the European Parliament. The post was last held by Geoffrey Van Orden, who succeeded Ashley Fox in 2019. His term ended after the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.

Leaders of Conservative MEPs (1973 to 2020)

Leader	Portrait	Constituency	Took office	Left office	Term length
Sir Peter Kirk		Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden	1 January 1973[1]	17 April 1977[2]	4 years and 107 days
Geoffrey Rippon[3]		Member of Parliament for Hexham	17 April 1977	7 July 1979	2 years and 82 days
James Scott-Hopkins[4]		Hereford and Worcester	7 July 1979	9 February 1982	2 years and 218 days
Henry Plumb		Cotswold	9 February 1982	7 July 1987	5 years and 149 days
Christopher Prout[5]		Shropshire and Stafford	7 July 1987	16 June 1994	6 years and 345 days
Tom Spencer[6]		Surrey	16 June 1994	16 September 1997	3 years and 93 days
Edward McMillan-Scott		Yorkshire and the Humber	16 September 1997	14 December 2001	4 years and 90 days
Jonathan Evans		Wales	14 December 2001[7]	14 December 2004	3 years and 1 day
Timothy Kirkhope		Yorkshire and the Humber	14 December 2004[8]	28 November 2007	2 years and 350 days
Giles Chichester		South West England and Gibraltar	28 November 2007[9]	5 June 2008	190 days
Philip Bushill-Matthews		West Midlands	5 June 2008[10]	18 November 2008	167 days
Timothy Kirkhope		Yorkshire and the Humber	18 November 2008[11]	23 November 2010	2 years and 5 days
Martin Callanan		North East England	23 November 2010[12]	1 March 2012	1 year and 99 days
Richard Ashworth		South East England	14 March 2012[13]	19 November 2013	1 year and 250 days
Syed Kamall		London	19 November 2013[14]	25 November 2014	1 year and 6 days
Ashley Fox		South West England and Gibraltar	25 November 2014[15]	11 June 2019	4 years and 198 days
Geoffrey Van Orden		East of England	11 June 2019	31 January 2020	234 days

References

1. "Peter Kirk (1928 - 1977) | PETER KIRK EUROPEAN TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIPS". kirkfund.org.uk. 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2018-11-11.
2. "Sir Peter Kirk, a Tory Legislator And Member of European Assembly". Retrieved 2018-11-11.
3. "Obituary: : Lord Rippon of Hexham". The Independent. Retrieved 2018-11-11.
4. "Obituary: Sir James Scott-Hopkins". The Independent. Retrieved 2018-11-11.
5. "Lord Kingsland". 2009-07-14. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-11-11.
6. Ward, Lucy; Bates, Stephen (1999-02-01). "Tory MEP who smuggled drugs and porn quits". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-11-11.
7. "Welsh Tory MEP wins leadership role". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
8. "News in brief". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
9. "Giles Chichester is new leader of Tory MEPs | Conservative Home". Conservative Home. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
10. "Leader of Tory MEPs stands down". 2008-06-05. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
11. "Timothy Kirkhope returns to lead Tory MEPs for European Elections | Conservative Home". Conservative Home. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
12. Moss, Richard. "BBC - Moss Missives: North East Conservative Martin Callanan elected to crucial Europe role". Retrieved 2018-03-17.
13. "Richard Ashworth elected new leader of Tory MEPs | Conservative Home". Conservative Home. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
14. "Syed Kamall defeats Richard Ashworth to become leader of the Conservative MEPs | Conservative Home". Conservative Home. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
15. "Campaigning MEP elected to lead Tories in Brussels | Conservative MEPs". conservativeeurope.com. Retrieved 2018-03-17.