George Eustice
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George Eustice has been the Conservative Party MP for Camborne and Redruth since 2010. He was a minister of state Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) from May 2015 until 28 February 2019.
Prior to this he was parliamentary under-secretary for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) from October 2013-May 2015.[1] with responsibility for farming, food and marine environment.
Eurosceptic cause
Eustice has long supported the eurosceptic cause.
He stood as a UKIP candidate in the 1999 European Parliamentary elections.
He then became head of anti-Euro campaign group Business for Sterling, which Eustice had this to say about in 2011:[2]
- 'A tendency for martyrdom has dogged euroscepticism since 1975. Eurosceptics have a habit of picking fights prematurely when they are ill prepared on ground where they could never win anyway. The only exception I have ever come across was Business for Sterling, which developed a unique culture partly because of the early leadership of Nick Herbert, Alex Hickman and Dominic Cummings under the chairmanship of Rodney Leach.
- 'At Business for Sterling, we played to win and aimed to ensure that battles were won before they even started. We chose our ground and the timing of our attacks carefully and we planned things properly. It was a campaign that took no prisoners. We instigated a civil war in the CBI, turned the Trade Unions against the Labour government and repeatedly de-railed Tony Blair and his much vaunted New Labour spin doctors. Its success then is the main reason we are not in the euro today.'
In late 2011, Eustice, with two other Conservative MPs Andrea Leadsom and Chris Heaton-Harris launched the Fresh Start Group. This was established to examine the options for a new UK-EU relationship and had a close relationship with the think tank Open Europe.
Political career
Eustice became Head of Press under Conservative Party leader Michael Howard during the 2005 general election. He then joined David Cameron's Leadership campaign team and between 2005 and 2008 and was Cameron's Press Secretary during his time as Leader of the Opposition.[3]
After a brief stint as a lobbyist, Eustice became an MP at the 2010 general election (with a majority of just 66 votes). In the 2015 election, Eustice retained his seat with a majority of 7,004 and 40 per cent of the vote. He was also promoted to minister of state at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. [4]
Lobbyist
In 2009 Eustice joined Portland Communications as an associate director.[5]
No2AV campaign
Eustice was asked to take a leading role in the 2011 referendum campaign No2AV, which campaigned against reform of the UK's voting system.
Notes
- ↑ George Eustice, www.parliament.uk, accessed 8 October 2013
- ↑ For €urosceptics to succeed, the Conservative party has to be united – votes need to be won rather than lost in parliament, Conservative Home, 23 October 2011
- ↑ George Eustice MP, former press secretary to Rt Hon David Cameron MP The Guardian, 17 January 2012, accessed 23 April 2015
- ↑ George Eustice named as Defra Minister ITV News, 11 May 2015, accessed 13 May 2015
- ↑ Tory former press secretary George Eustice joins Portland, Guardian, 27 March 2009
