Ashley Mote - European Parliament

European Parliament

Mote was elected in June 2004 as a representative of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) for South East England. He had campaigned to clean up sleaze in Brussels.

He purports to expose and research fraud in the EU, although Mote himself has served time in prison after being found guilty of benefit fraud. He has recently published J'Accuse...!, an anti-EU pamphlet in which he claims migrants are eight times more likely to commit crime than "indigenous people". According to Mote, "Jamaican Yardies are selling crack cocaine in Hereford and Cambridgeshire, Chinese Snakeheads are operating in Lancashire and Norfolk, Albanians are running prostitution in Hampshire, Colombians control a cocaine network in Essex."

After having the whip withdrawn pending his fraud trial, he became an non-inscrit MEP. In 2005, he joined with Hans Peter Martin and Paul van Buitenen in the loose unofficial grouping Platform for Transparency which promoted accountability in the European Union. In 2006, he gave evidence to the House of Lords enquiry into the EU's financial management of public funds. In 2007, he transferred his allegiances to the new far-right group Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty, whose members included Jean-Marie Le Pen and Alessandra Mussolini; the group, branded as "fascists" ceased to exist on 14 November 2007.

On 9 May 2009, Mote announced he would not stand as a candidate at the 2009 European Parliament election.