Malcolm Pearson

Malcolm Everard MacLaren Pearson, Baron Pearson of Rannoch (born 20 July 1942) is a businessman and UKIP member of the House of Lords.

Educated at Eton College, Pearson is chairman of the Pearson Webb Springbett (PWS) Group of reinsurance brokers, which he founded in 1964. He was made a life peer on 18 June 1990 as Baron Pearson of Rannoch, of Bridge of Gaur in the District of Perth and Kinross, sitting as a Conservative.

Eurosceptic

Pearson is a eurosceptic of long standing. In May 2004, he called for voters to back the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Along with three other Conservative peers, he was then expelled by the Conservative Party on 30 May. He subsequently said that he would probably sit as an "independent Conservative". He threatened to quit the Tories to join UKIP, which he did on 7 January 2007, along with Leopold Verney, (21st Baron Willoughby de Broke) He criticised the Tory party's leadership for being "silly" and argued that they should try to get UKIP members back into the fold by adopting more anti-European Union policies themselves. He has tabled a number of unsuccessful Private Member's Bills in the House of Lords demanding Britain's immediate withdrawal from the European Union. In November 2006 he tabled the European Union (Implications of Withdrawal) Bill 2006-07 which calls for the establishment of a Committee of Inquiry into the implications of UK withdrawal from the European Union. Also, he joined the United Kingdom Independence Party sometime afterwards, citing David Cameron's refusal to tell the British people about the disadvantages they suffer because Britain is a member of the EU.

Think tank

He is one of the co-founder of an anti-EU think-tank, Global Britain, which has campaigned against alleged pro-EU bias at the BBC. Others include UKIP donor Patrick Barbour.

He is a strong supporter of the pro-hunting Countryside Alliance, serving as chairman of its deerstalking committee.

Counterjihad links

Geert Wilders controversy

In February 2009, Baron Pearson further courted controversy when he and right-wing cross-bencher Baroness Cox invited Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders to show the anti-Islam film Fitna before the House of Lords. However, Wilders was prevented from entering the UK on the instructions of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. In response, Pearson and Cox accused the Government of "appeasing" militant Islam.

ICLA conference

Pearson attended the 2009 Washington D.C. conference 'International Legal Conference on Freedom of Speech and Religion', organised by the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA), a prominent organisation in the counterjihad movement. Well-known American anti-Muslim activists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, who had recently been banned from entering the UK by the Home Secretary, also attended.

Personal life

Pearson has been married three times: to Francesca Frua de Angeli in 1965, with whom he had one daughter and divorced 1970; to the Hon. Mary Charteris in 1977, with whom he had two daughters and divorced 1995; and to Caroline St Vincent Rose in 1997.

Affiliations

Politics and Economics Research Trust | UKIP | Conservative Party | Countryside Alliance | Taxpayers' Alliance | Global Britain, member | Rannoch Charitable Trust, trustee | Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine, sole patron,