The Lord Plumb | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 1987 | |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 27 April 1987 – 3 November 2017 Life peerage | |
| 16th President of the European Parliament | |
| In office 20 January 1987 – 25 July 1989 | |
| Preceded by | Pierre Pflimlin |
| Succeeded by | Enrique Barón |
| Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament | |
| In office 9 February 1982 – 7 July 1987 | |
| Preceded by | James Scott-Hopkins |
| Succeeded by | Christopher Prout |
| Member of the European Parliament forCotswolds | |
| In office 7 June 1979 – 10 June 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency created |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| President ofNational Farmers' Union of England and Wales | |
| In office 4 February 1970 – 1 February 1979 | |
| Deputy | Richard C. Butler |
| Preceded by | Gwilym Williams |
| Succeeded by | Richard C. Butler |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Charles Henry Plumb (1925-03-27)27 March 1925 Warwickshire, England |
| Died | 15 April 2022(2022-04-15) (aged 97) |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Other political affiliations | European Democrats |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Occupation |
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Charles Henry Plumb, Baron Plumb,DL (27 March 1925 – 15 April 2022) was a Britishpolitician andfarmer who went into politics as a leader of theNational Farmers' Union. He later became active in theConservative Party and was elected as aMember of the European Parliament (MEP). He served as an MEP from 1979 to 1999, and wasPresident of the European Parliament from 1987 to 1989, the only Briton to hold the post.
Plumb's family was fromCheshire and had been in farming for several generations. His father farmed atColeshill inWarwickshire, where his son joined him in 1940. He took over running the farm after his father died in 1952. The farm ran to 300 acres (1.2 km2) and consisted primarily of a dairy herd (200 pedigreeAyrshire cattle) with 70 breedingsows and 100 acres (0.40 km2) of grain.[1]
Plumb was married to Marjorie (née Dunn) from 1947 until her death in 2019; they had three children. He died on 15 April 2022, at the age of 97, after suffering a stroke.[2][3]
After rising through the county branch, in 1965, Plumb was elected vice-president of the National Farmers' Union. Although only 40 years old he was considered for the presidency,[4] but had to settle for promotion to deputy president in 1966.[5] In the late 1960s, Plumb was a member of the Northumberland Committee inquiring into theoutbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, being the only working farmer on the committee. Towards the end of the committee's deliberations, a report from political correspondent J. W. Murray inFarmer and Stockbreeder said Plumb had single-handedly persuaded the committee to recommend prohibiting the import of carcass meat from countries where foot-and-mouth was endemic.[6]
In January 1970, the incumbent president of the NFU Gwilym Williams failed to get the 80% support necessary to be re-elected, and Plumb was elected president of the NFU in his place.[7] Plumb's term of office included British accession to theEuropean Economic Community and itsCommon Agricultural Policy and Plumb negotiated for greater support for British agriculture; he stressed that Britain no longer had the economic power to bring cheapfood prices.[8] Plumb was, however, a strong supporter of British membership of theEuropean Economic Community; he was considered as a possible director for the pro-market campaign in the1975 referendum campaign[9] and was described as one of its most indefatigable spokesmen.[10] Plumb was awarded aknighthood in the1973 Birthday Honours.[11][12][13]
Throughout the 1970s, Plumb hadRichard C. Butler as his deputy at the NFU, and Butler succeeded him as president when he retired in 1979.[14]
Having joined theConservative Party, Plumb was elected Member of the European Parliament for theCotswolds seat in1979 and remained in theEuropean Parliament until 1999, beingPresident of the European Parliament from 1987 to 1989. He was the only British president of the European parliament.[15] He was made aLife peer asBaron Plumb, of Coleshill in the County of Warwickshire on 6 April 1987.[16]
On 11 October 1988, Plumb received international attention. During the papal visit to the European Parliament inStrasbourg,Pope John Paul II was delivering a speech.Northern Ireland MEPIan Paisley, a staunch Protestant and opponent of Catholicism, heckled throughout the delivery, brandishing posters accusing the Pope of being theAntichrist. Using his position as president, Plumb ordered Paisley to leave the chamber.[2]
He retired from theHouse of Lords on 3 November 2017.[17] He was also Chancellor ofCoventry University between 1995 and 2007.[3]
In June 2012, theBureau of Investigative Journalism andThe Independent newspaper revealed how senior members of the House of Lords failed to disclose their business interests in apublic inquiry. As of July 2012, Plumb's entry in theregister of interests listed his onlyremunerated employment/profession as 'farming',[18] despite his involvement with theBrussels-basedlobbying firmAlber & Geiger since 2007.[19][20] According toThe Independent, Plumb insisted he did not need to register his involvement because he had “never been in employment, paid or unpaid” by the firm.[21]
| European Parliament | ||
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| New constituency | Member of the European Parliament forCotswolds 1979–1999 | Constituency abolished |
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| Preceded by | Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament 1982–1987 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of the European Parliament 1987–1989 | Succeeded by |
| Common Assembly: 1952–1958 | |
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| Parliamentary Assembly: 1958–1962 | |
| European Parliament (appointed): 1962–1979 | |
| European Parliament (elected): 1979–present | |
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