Robert Kilroy-Silk | |
|---|---|
| Leader ofVeritas | |
| In office 30 January 2005 – 29 July 2005 | |
| Deputy | Damian Hockney |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | Patrick Eston |
| Member of the European Parliament for theEast Midlands | |
| In office 10 June 2004 – 4 June 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Nick Clegg |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Member of Parliament forKnowsley North | |
| In office 9 June 1983 – 1 October 1986 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | George Howarth |
| Member of Parliament forOrmskirk | |
| In office 28 February 1974 – 13 May 1983 | |
| Preceded by | Harold Soref |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1942-05-19)19 May 1942 (age 82) Birmingham, Warwickshire, England |
| Political party | Independent |
| Other political affiliations | Labour (1974–1986) UKIP (2004–05) Veritas (2005) |
| Spouse | |
| Alma mater | London School of Economics |
| Occupation | Television presenter |
Robert Michael Kilroy-Silk (bornRobert Michael Silk; 19 May 1942) is an English former politician and broadcaster. After a decade as a university lecturer, he served as aLabour PartyMember of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 1986. He left theHouse of Commons in 1986 in order to present a newBBC Television daytime talk show,Kilroy, which ran until 2004. He returned to politics, serving as aMember of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2004 to 2009. He had a significant role in the mainstreaming ofEurosceptic politics in the UK[1] and has been dubbed 'The Godfather ofBrexit'.[2]
Kilroy-Silk was born inBirmingham, son of William Silk, aRoyal Navy leading stoker, and his wife Minnie Rose (née Rooke). William Silk was lost at sea when aged 22, serving onHMS Charybdis, which was torpedoed and sunk off the coast ofBrittany by Germantorpedo boats on 23 October 1943.[3] His son was 17 months old.
Robert's mother Rose remarried in 1946, to family friend John Francis Kilroy, a car worker at theRootes plant inWarwickshire. He adopted the young boy, who from then used the surname Kilroy-Silk.
Kilroy-Silk failed hiseleven-plus examination, for entry to selective schools, in 1953. He spent his first year at asecondary modern school and later passed the review exam and went to Saltley Grammar School,Saltley, Birmingham. He attended theLondon School of Economics to study politics and economics.[4]
In 1963, Kilroy-Silk married Jan Beech,[5] daughter of ashop steward. The couple met when he was 18 and she was 17.[6] They have a son and a daughter.[7]
After graduation he became a lecturer in politics at theUniversity of Liverpool, serving from 1966 to 1974.[8] He published a theoretical work,Socialism since Marx, in 1972.[2] Kilroy-Silk moved toWarleigh House in Plymouth in 2015 with his wife.
At theFebruary 1974 general election, Kilroy-Silk was elected as a Labour MP for theOrmskirk constituency inLancashire. He remained its MP until its abolition at the1983 general election, when he was elected to represent the newKnowsley North seat; he held this until hisresignation from the House of Commons in 1986. In an article forThe Times in 1975, Kilroy-Silk argued that politics was not "compromises and bargains" or hankering after "a spurious consensus". He wrote that the function of government, particularly a Labour government, was
"to impose its values on society. Its role is creative: to cast, so far as it is able, society in its image". Furthermore, socialists should not be worried about being accused of dictatorial powers; they must go forward with "a tint of arrogance".[9]
The next year he was quoted as saying, "the Labour Party must always be a class party, for it is a class war we are fighting".[10]
Kilroy-Silk was appointed ShadowHome Affairs spokesman, resigning in 1985. In resigning his seat, he said that he had been assaulted by members of theMilitant group and was reported to have had a scuffle with left-wing Labour MPJeremy Corbyn.[11] He wrote a book about his experiences, entitledHard Labour, and subsequently left the Labour Party.
In 2004, Kilroy-Silk was recruited to theUK Independence Party (UKIP). During that year'sEuropean Parliament election campaign he presented one of theparty political broadcasts. His recruitment and celebrity significantly raised the profile of the party,[1][2] further helped by his enlisting of actressJoan Collins who attended a UKIP press conference at Kilroy-Silk's invitation.
Kilroy-Silk stood on the UKIP list for theEast Midlands constituency and was elected as aMember of the European Parliament (MEP) in the second seat for his region.The election used aclosed list form ofproportional representation; UKIP scored 26.05 per cent of the vote in that region, just behind the Conservatives with 26.39 per cent.
In the2004 Hartlepool by-election, UKIP came third, ahead of theConservative Party. The next day, in an interview onBreakfast with Frost (BBC), Kilroy-Silk expressed ambition to lead UKIP and criticised the party's leaderRoger Knapman.
Following this, businessman and friendPaul Sykes announced his intention to cease his partial funding of UKIP and to return his support to the Conservatives, as he feared that theEurosceptic vote might be split. The branch chairmen of UKIP were canvassed on their opinion regarding Kilroy-Silk's challenge for the party leadership. Only a minority (13%) were sympathetic to him; Kilroy-Silk did not think this was significant, as he believed that too few party members had been consulted. Party officials threatened him with disciplinary action if he continued his challenge.[citation needed]
On 27 October 2004, Kilroy-Silk officially announced that he had withdrawn from the UKIP whip in the European Parliament, branding the party "incompetent". But, he said that he would remain as an independent member of UKIP, and would continue to challenge for the leadership.
UKIP's constitution states that 70 days' notice is required before a leadership ballot can take place. With thenext general election in the UK expected in spring 2005, Kilroy-Silk pushed for an emergency general meeting of the party as early as possible. On 3 November 2004, Kilroy-Silk said he intended to be leader by Christmas, though this would have been impossible under the rules.[citation needed]
In Manchester on 3 December 2004 at about 7.15 p.m., Kilroy-Silk was attacked outside the Girls' High School, when a bucket of manure was thrown over him as he arrived for a recording of the BBC Radio 4'sAny Questions.[12][13]
On 20 January 2005, Kilroy-Silk announced that he had left UKIP; he had been a member for nine months.
On 30 January 2005 Kilroy-Silk launched a new political partyVeritas, promising to take the fight to the "supercilious metropolitan elite".[2]Damian Hockney, UKIP's leader in theLondon Assembly, had defected to Veritas, becoming its first Deputy Leader.
UKIP members and some journalists dubbed Kilroy-Silk's new party "Vanitas", meaning a party acting as a vehicle for its founder's vanity.[14]
The party was formally launched on 2 February 2005 at Hinckley Golf Club inHinckley, Leicestershire. In the2005 general election, Kilroy-Silk contested the seat ofErewash, but came in fourth with 5.8%, just above the 5% level needed to save his deposit. He tried to press charges against a man who, he said, "smashed a bottle of water against the side of his head" while the politician was being interviewed by a European television crew outside a supermarket. The alleged assailant said he had squirted Kilroy-Silk with water from a plastic bottle before running away; this account was confirmed by the TV crew, which also filmed the incident. The police decided not to prosecute.
On 12 July 2005, party member Ken Wharton announced his intention to challenge Kilroy-Silk for the leadership, claiming party members were "not being looked after". Discontented party members set up the Veritas Members' Association to "put the truth back into Veritas".[15]
On 29 July 2005, Veritas announced the resignation of Kilroy-Silk as party leader.[16] In his resignation statement, he said:
"It was clear from the general election result – and more recently that of theCheadle by-election – that the electors are content with the old parties and that it would be virtually impossible for a new party to make a significant impact given the nature of our electoral system. We tried and failed."[16]
In August 2005, four of the MEPs for the East Midlands region (Clark,Heaton-Harris,Helmer andWhitehead) sent a joint letter to President of the European ParliamentJosep Borrell complaining about Kilroy-Silk:
"He seems to have done little or no work as a constituency MEP for the East Midlands. This leaves five MEPs to do the work of six and the electorate have been short-changed". They went on to complain that Kilroy-Silk was not "fulfilling the pledge he made on becoming an MEP, to serve the electorate of his region" and to call for him to "either do the job for which he is paid, or get out and leave it to those who can."[17]
The European Parliament does not have any power to expel a member, and Borrell took no action.[citation needed]
Kilroy-Silk, who was elected to the European Parliament on the UKIP list, remained a member of the Veritas Party, but sat as an Independent MEP. Some Veritas members were reported to have questioned why he was allowed to continue as a party member.[citation needed]
Kilroy-Silk's name was absent from the list of candidates published on 7 May 2009 for the2009 European Parliament election. His membership was terminated when the European Parliament reconvened on 17 July 2009.[18]
In 1992, Kilroy made a comment regarding Ireland in hisDaily Express column, under the guise of attackingRay MacSharry, a former Irish government minister and EU commissioner, whom he described as "a redundant second-rate politician from a country peopled by priests, peasants and pixies".[19] This was condemned by the thenIrish ambassador to the UK, Joseph Small, for its "gratuitously offensive and indeed racist remarks".[20] The newspaper's editor,Sir Nicholas Lloyd, apologised to MacSharry and the Irish people in general, while Kilroy added: "I accept that my references to Mr MacSharry and the Irish people were both offensive and unjustified, and I fully associate myself with this apology."[21]
The BBC cancelled theKilroy show in January 2004 after an opinion article, entitled "We owe Arabs nothing", by Kilroy-Silk was published in theSunday Express on 4 January 2004.[22][23] The article had first been published in April 2003 by the same paper and 'republished in error' according to Kilroy-Silk.[24] It did not attract much national attention when first published. According to Faisal Bodi, a columnist forThe Guardian, the reaction at its second publication was a measure of "the increasing organisation of the Muslim community". Bodi added:
Kilroy-Silk's suspension was precipitated by a flurry of web messages and emails circulated by various Muslim organisations notifying people of the outrage. The circulars from the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, theMuslim Council of Britain, theIslamic Human Rights Commission and the Islamic Affairs Central Network, to mention a few, were focused, informative and, above all, empowering. They contained a chronology of Kilroyisms, names and contacts of editors at the BBC and theSunday Express, and instructions on how to make complaints. In the end, the BBC was left with little choice.[25]
The article was strongly criticised by theCommission for Racial Equality, whose head,Trevor Phillips, said that the affair could have a "hugely unhelpful" effect. Bodi wrote that Kilroy-Silk should be prosecuted forincitement to racial hatred. He said that Kilroy-Silk had also written statements critical ofMuslims in 1989, during theSalman Rushdie affair, and in a 1995 article in theDaily Express.[25]
By contrast, Ibrahim Nawar, the head of Arab Press Freedom Watch, came out in support of Kilroy-Silk in aDaily Telegraph article. He said the politician was "an advocate of freedom of expression" and that he agreed with much of what Kilroy-Silk had said about Arab regimes.[26]
A spokeswoman for Kilroy-Silk toldThe Observer, "He is not a racist at all – he employs a black driver", a quote which is sometimes incorrectly attributed to Kilroy-Silk.[27]
His talk showKilroy started on 24 November 1986. Originally calledDay to Day, the programme was renamed toKilroy in September 1987. It ran until 2004 when it was cancelled by the BBC in reaction to the publication of an article by Kilroy-Silk entitled "We owe Arabs nothing" which was published in theSunday Express on 4 January 2004. This provoked considerable controversy.[22][failed verification]
In 2001, Kilroy-Silk hosted a television programme onITV1 calledShafted. It was a quiz-show and at the end of the show, Kilroy-Silk would ask players whether they wished to "share" or to "shaft", with accompanying hand gestures.[28]
The show was cancelled after four episodes, with sixteen recordings unaired, due to falling ratings. ThePenguin TV Companion (2006) ranked it as the worst British television show of the 2000s.[29]
Kilroy-Silk appeared as a guest onHave I Got News for You on 30 April 2004. There was a heated exchange between him and his teammatePaul Merton, in which Merton repeatedly implored Kilroy-Silk to "shut the fuck up". This was edited out of the televised episode but a clip from the recording appeared on social media some years later.[30]
On 31 January 2005, a television programme,Kilroy: Behind the Tan, was broadcast on the BBC. Created in documentary style, it followed the politician from his election as an MEP for UKIP to his leaving the party.[citation needed]
In early February 2005, Kilroy-Silk worked on aChannel 4 television programme calledKilroy and the Gypsies. He spent a week living with a family ofRomany Gypsies at a campsite inBedfordshire to explore their lives. He also interviewed residents of surrounding villages.[31]
In other appearances, he was the first contestant to be voted out of the 2008 edition ofI'm a Celebrity....Get Me Out of Here!.[32] On 7 November 2009, he appeared as a panellist on the BBC'sQuestion Time programme.[citation needed]
In November 2008Derek Clark MEP complained that Kilroy-Silk was taking his parliamentary wage while being paid to appear in the reality TV showI'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.[33] In his opinion the TV show represented a conflict of interest.[33]
| European Parliament | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by unknown | Member of European Parliament forEast Midlands 2004 –2009 | Succeeded by unknown |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forOrmskirk 1974–1983 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forKnowsley North 1983–1986 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| New political party | Leader ofVeritas 2005 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
