John Rees-Evans

John Rees-Evans
Personal details
Born 1978 (age 3738)
Hampshire, England
Nationality British
Political party UK Independence Party
Website johnreesevans.uk

Military career

Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch  British Army
Service number 24965344
Unit Parachute Regiment (did not complete training)

John Rees-Evans FRGS (born 1978) is a UK Independence Party (UKIP) political activist and candidate who contested the party's November 2016 leadership election, coming third with 18.1% of the vote, behind Suzanne Evans, who received 19.3% share of the vote.

Personal life

Born in Hampshire and educated overseas, including at the Jeppe High School for Boys in Johannesburg, Rees-Evans joined the British Army Reserve at 19 after leaving school where he served for five years including a year training with the Parachute Regiment. He now lives in Penrhiwceiber with his family and has a professional background in business, particularly adventure tourism. He also has houses in the south of France and Bulgaria and an interest in horses.[1]

Political career

He contested the seat of Cardiff South and Penarth in the United Kingdom general election, 2015 receiving 13.8% of the vote, a swing of 11.2% to UKIP.

Rees-Evans declared his candidacy for UKIP leader on 24 October 2016.[2] He has pledged to ensure the UK leaves the EU and that the government is reduced in size and function. He believes that the current political class in Westminster are out of touch with citizens and pledged to make politics more transparent and open if elected UKIP leader.[3]

Rees-Evans differs radically from the other candidates advocating the introduction of direct democracy first within UKIP and then seeking to use it with intention to cause massive reform of the entire UK political system.[4] He received the endorsement of boxer Tyson Fury.[5]

He is the last remaining Faragist candidate in the race. After walking out of tightly controlled hustings after being told "not to rock the boat", he has embarked on a nationwide tour of membership similar to that of Nigel Farage prior to the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016. Sam Gould, the Chairman of UKIP Caerphilly confirmed this commenting "Policy-wise he is similar to Raheem. John is a gentlemen and has done so much for UKIP, helping them produce party political broadcasts and has raised a lot of money for the party, too."[6]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.