View source for John Whittaker (UKIP politician)

{{Short description|British politician (born 1945)}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{BLP sources|date=July 2012}}
{{more footnotes|date=July 2012}}
}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name        = John Whittaker
| image       = John Whittaker.jpg
| office      = [[UK Independence Party|Chairman of the UK Independence Party]]
| leader      = [[Nigel Farage]]
| term_start  = 27 September 2006
| term_end    = 8 September 2008
| predecessor = [[David Campbell Bannerman]]
| successor   = [[Paul Nuttall]]
| office1     = [[Member of the European Parliament]]<br /> for [[North West England (European Parliament constituency)|North West England]]
| term_start1 = 13 June 2004
| term_end1   = 4 June 2009
| predecessor1= [[Richard Fletcher-Vane, 2nd Baron Inglewood|Richard Fletcher-Vane]]
| successor1  = [[Paul Nuttall]]
| birth_date  = {{Birth date and age|1945|06|7|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Oldham]], [[Lancashire]], England
| death_date  =
| death_place =
| party       = [[UKIP]]
| alma_mater  = BA (Cape Town) BSc ([[Queen Mary University of London]]) PhD ([[Cape Town|University of Cape Town]])
}}
'''John Whittaker''' (born 7 June 1945) is a former [[UK Independence Party]] (UKIP) politician who was a [[Member of the European Parliament]] (MEP) for the [[North West England  (European Parliament constituency)|North West England ]] region from 2004 to 2009.
Whittaker was born in [[Oldham]], [[Lancashire]]. He was educated at [[Queen Mary University of London]] (BSc Physics, 1966) and the [[University of Cape Town]] (PhD Physics, 1980; BA Economics, 1982).  He is a senior lecturer in economics at [[Lancaster University]].  His main research and teaching interests are in monetary policy and macroeconomics, and recently he has taken a particular interest in the problems associated with the single currency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/whittaj1 |title=John Whittaker |publisher=Lancaster University |access-date=2016-07-21}}</ref>
He stood for UKIP in the [[1995 Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election|Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election]] in 1995 where he came 5th out of 10 candidates behind the [[Official Monster Raving Loony Party]].
Whittaker was the UKIP's lead candidate in the North West for the European Parliament elections in 1999. Though UKIP gained 6.5% of the vote in the region, he fell short of being elected by about 0.5 per cent. However, in 2004 he was more successful, being one of 12 UKIP candidates to win a European seat in the big UKIP breakthrough of that year.
He contested the [[2005 United Kingdom general election|2005 general election]] for the constituencies of [[Ashton-under-Lyne (UK Parliament constituency)|Ashton under Lyne]], [[Crosby (UK Parliament constituency)|Crosby]], [[Heywood and Middleton (UK Parliament constituency)|Heywood and Middleton]], [[Hyndburn (UK Parliament constituency)|Hyndburn]], [[Manchester Central (UK Parliament constituency)|Manchester Central]], [[Rochdale (UK Parliament constituency)|Rochdale]], [[Stalybridge and Hyde (UK Parliament constituency)|Stalybridge and Hyde]] and [[Wigan (UK Parliament constituency)|Wigan]].
In 2005, Whittaker became UKIP's official spokesman on Economic and Monetary Affairs. In September 2006, following the election of [[Nigel Farage]] as leader of UKIP, Whittaker was appointed party chairman.
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{commons category|John Whittaker}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100414150510/http://www.ukip.org/content/features/895-john-whittaker-mep Feature page on UKIP website]
* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/28509/JOHN_WHITTAKER_home.html Profile at European Parliament website]
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{{Succession box|title=Chairman of the [[UK Independence Party]]|years=2007–2008|before=[[David Campbell-Bannerman]]|after=[[Paul Nuttall]]}}
{{Succession box|title=[[Member of the European Parliament]]<br> for [[North West England (European Parliament constituency)|North West England]]|years=2004–2009|before=[[Richard Fletcher-Vane, 2nd Baron Inglewood|Richard Fletcher-Vane]]|after=[[Paul Nuttall]]}}
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{{UKIP}}
{{Lancaster University|state=collapsed}}
{{University of Cape Town|state=collapsed}}
{{University of London|state=collapsed}}
{{Portal bar|United Kingdom|Biography|Economics|Politics}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2021}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whittaker, John}}
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Alumni of Queen Mary University of London]]
[[Category:University of Cape Town alumni]]
[[Category:UK Independence Party parliamentary candidates]]
[[Category:Politicians from Oldham]]
[[Category:Academics of Lancaster University]]
[[Category:UK Independence Party MEPs]]
[[Category:MEPs for England 2004–2009]]