Profile: Born in 1943 in Droitwich, Worcestershire, he was brought up in Birmingham. Happily married to Angela since 1967, with three children and five grandchildren, he now lives in Harbury, a village near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

Educated:Malvern College, Worcestershire
University College Oxford (M.A)
Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program

• Deputy Leader of the UK Conservative Delegation
• EPP-ED Coordinator on the Committee of Employment & Social Affairs (Conservative Party Spokesman)
• Committee of Environment and Public Health (Substitute Member) and Sub-Committee for Human Rights
• Vice-Chairman of the SME Circle
• European Democratic Union (EDU) Employment Representative
• Co-President of the Intergroup on Ageing
• Joint ACP/EU Parliamentary Assembly (Substitute Member)
• Member of the Delegation for relations with Iran, India and South Asia
• Vice-President of the All-Party Group on Kashmir

On the Employment & Social Affairs Committee, Philip is the Co-ordinator to the EPP-ED is the Conservative Party Spokesman. Overall, the Committee is fairly left-wing, more interested in job protection than job creation. Philip takes a robust and rather different view. He has supported employment guidelines across the EU but has pledged to resist the EU meddling in national employment laws. He has spoken repeatedly of the need to boost competitiveness in order to create jobs, which means less red tape and more flexibility.

He has spoken out on the Social Policy Agenda stressing the need to reduce taxation, a major cause of undeclared work. He has stressed that promoting employment is the best way to address poverty and social inclusion, and that globalisation can create more jobs.

Philip is very involved with the proposed Working Time Directive, and in particular the retention of the opt-out for the benefit of the millions of employees and employers in the UK who use it. Whilst Socialist  MEPs would like to see a maximum 48 hour week imposed, Philip has responded to many letters from constituents asking for their overtime to be saved. He is keen to hold the Brown government to its promise to retain the opt-out, in spite of the activities of the Labour MEPs in the Parliament, and will not accept a compromise which involves the phasing out of the opt-out - an idea which is currently on the table.

The issue of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is also key to Philip, who has recently written a report on the implementation of a document called the SME Charter for the Parliament. The SME Charter calls for all Member States, as well as the EU, to make legislation less burdensome for small businesses and to allow the voice of SMEs to be better heard in the decision making process. At present EU legislation takes into account the voice of trade unions and big business. But as the key employer in Europe, SMEs are very important too.

Philip is very supportative of the new Commission's plans to review and peel back EU legislation which could hinder job creation or is unnecessary. Amongst the legislation which will come under review is the Temporary Agency Workers Directive. Philip is holding the Commission to account on its plans to open new consultations on this subject. Of the 7 million temporary workers in Europe, over a million are British, this is clearly a fundamental piece of legislation for the future flexibility of the UK labour market.

The subject of demography also comes under the Employment and Social Affairs committee given the huge impact that the falling birthrate and ageing society will have on Europe's population in the coming years. This particularly so in terms of the burdens on workers, when we might retire and the type of pension we can expect. With a reduced population the challenges for Europe to compete in a global market alongside countries whose populations are exploding, are intensified. Whilst living longer is a great achievement, the associated challenges are numerous. Philip is rapporteur for the Parliament on this emerging issue at EU level.

Philip has been instrumental in reshaping proposals on European Works Councils and Information & Consultation so that the rights of managers to manage, as well as communicate directly with their own employees, are fully safeguarded. This legislation will soon be under review and Philip is consulting business about changes that need to be made, or indeed, avoided.

In Autumn 1999 he joined nine fellow Conservative MEPs in marching on Paris. Fed up with France´s continual disregard of EU law in maintaining the ban on British beef, they demonstrated at the Arc de Triomphe.

They were soon surrounded by armed National Guard, before being allowed to progress to a meeting with the British Ambassador, followed by a session with the French Agriculture Ministry. Needless to say, this activity generated massive international press coverage, and showed up the contrasting inactivity of Messrs Blair and Brown back home.

Subsequently he proposed to the Portuguese Presidency (Jan 2000) that the next IGC Agenda should include the subject of how the Council Presidency is rotated. His proposition was that any country in the bottom half of a league-table of member states in terms of transposing EU law into national law, or in terms of complying with it afterwards, should be banned from holding the Presidency.

He made a similar proposal regarding the siting of the European Food Safety Authority, that such countries be denied the opportunity to bid. Although his amendment got a sizeable majority in the Parliament (260:213) it was short of the absolute majority of all members (314) so failed to pass. But the point has been made, that EU Member States should not vote for more EU laws, simply ignore them, and then expect this will pass unnoticed.

In the UK he has very much championed the needs of the rural community, meeting with farmers, the CLA, English Nature, the FoE and the NFU. He has spoken at a national meeting of the Small Abattoir Federation, in support of the industry. He has also spoken in London to the Engineering Employers' Federation, the CBI SME Council, and the Worshipful Company of Actuaries.

In Brussels he has chaired meetings of the SME Union (where he is the UK Conservative Bureau Member) as well as delegation visits from West Midlands Chambers. He has also hosted high-level visits from the Hereford Cider industry and for Heart of England Fine Foods. He has grilled former Secretary of State for Agriculture Nick Brown as part of the EU Committee of Public Inquiry, and has also personally quizzed Marta Andreasen, former Commission Chief Accounting Officer, regarding the lack of proper EU accounts.

He has been a speaker at a West Midlands demonstration by the road haulage industry, and actively champions their cause for a level playing field with continental competition. Together with Malcolm Harbour, he completed the Countryside March in September 2002.

Within the West Midlands Conservative team he has primary responsibility for the Coventry, Warwickshire and Worcestershire areas.

He is very visible in local and regional press, where he is a regular contributor of articles and letters. His support for local activities, events and causes also receives wide press coverage. He has now been asked to help colleagues with their own press work, a task which he has been delighted to accept.

Personal Career History

1965 Joined Unilever
1976 Seconded to Thomas Lipton Inc, USA
1977 National Accounts Director Birds Eye Sales Ltd
1980 Managing Director Iglo Portugal (in Lisbon)
1981 Sales Director Birds Eye Wall´s Ltd
1986 Sales & Distribution Director Birds Eye Wall´s Ltd
1988 Director Van den Bergh & Jurgens Ltd, and Managing Director Craigmillar Ltd
1991 Managing Director Red Mill Snack Foods Ltd Wednesbury and Red Mill Company BV in the Netherlands (resigned Spring 1999 to campaign for European Parliament)
1999 Elected as a Conservative MEP for the West Midlands region.

2004 Re-elected as Conservative MEP for the West Midlands region. Conservative spokesman for Employment and Social Affairs.

Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

Past Council member of the Food & Drink Federation (FDF) and the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD).

Memberships: English Heritage, CPRE, Countryside Alliance.

Interests include: theatre, reading, enjoying the countryside

Personal Background

Philip decided to enter politics after a successful career in manufacturing industry because he was getting fed up with being on the receiving end of more and more regulation. After the 1997 General Election, when Tony Blair signed up to the Social Chapter, it was clear that the flow of regulation could turn into a torrent. So he decided to try and do something about it: he put his name forward as a prospective candidate and was selected a few months later as number two on the Conservative list for his home region of the West Midlands. He was elected MEP in June 1999.

He is a full member of the Employment & Social Affairs Committee and a substitute on the Environment and Public Health Committee and the Sub-Committee on Human Rights.

The Gravy Train charts the progress of a businessman who quits a successful career to become a Member of the European Parliament.

Frustrated by increasing EU regulations made by politicians with no experience of the real world, he is astonished to find himself elected and aboard the 'gravy train' to Brussels. This candid and humorous account of what he found in his new role lays bare many of the excesses and bureaucratic bungling of the EU, from fraud and corruption to dotty directives.

In a foreword to the book, former Tory leader William Hague says: "Philip explains in an easy to read, light-hearted way what it is like to become an MEP and what difference individual MEPs can make. He shows how MEPs have to deal with whole rafts of legislation from the debate on the European Constitution to the Directive on how to climb a ladder. But, above all, The Gravy Train demonstrates the importance of electing a candidate with previous experience of real life."

Avoiding political jargon, it gives a clear insight into many current issues and frankly exposes full details of MEPs pay and expenses.

Love or loathe the EU, The Gravy Train is a must for anyone concerned about the enormous influence that the European Union has over our lives.

Real politicians may not like it at all.

Hardback (23.5cm x 15.7cm), 212 pages, illustrated. £15 or €25 (ISBN 09544233-2-1) PUBLICATION: September 2003 For further details, contact the Polperro Heritage Press: 018868 12304 E-mail: polperro.press@virgin.net

Who Rules Britannia? by Philip Bushill-Matthews

A new publication that carries a more serious message to his previous book, The Gravy Train.

"Many People believe that they were misled into voting for a Common Market back in 1975, yet now find themselves part of an 'ever closer union'," says Philip Bushll-Matthews. "They feel victims of a great deception. This book decribes in a clear, down-to earth manner the challenges and achievements of EU membership and the pitfalls of leaving. It shows how UKIP supporters have indeed been deceived  - but not at all how they imagined".

Paperback (19.5 cm x 13cm), 148 pages.

£9.95 (ISBN 09549137-0-1) PUBLICATION:

February 2005. For further details, contact Becky Harding: 01676 530 297 E-mail: bharding@torymeps.com

No salary or fees from any outside source. Any fees offered for speaking are deflected to Victim Support.

Two tickets to the Wimbledon Mens' Singles Final 2005 from British American Tobacco following a conference organised in conjunction with them on Corporate Social Responsibility.

Visit to Finland in mid-September 2000 to see Oy Metsa-Rauma Ab pulp mill and UPM-Kymmene paper mill, and to review environmental management issues. Guest of the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) and the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF). Transport and accommodation provided.

Visit to Sweden in October 2000 as guest of HOTREC, invited as speaker at Annual Convention in Malmo on European Food Safety Agency. No fee, but transport and accommodation provided.

Lunch for 2 and 2 free tickets for Hamlet at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford to commemorate the bard's birthday (Philip raised the EU flag at this event – April 2001).

Visit to the Opera in Salzburg (two tickets, and one overnight stay - August 2001) as the guest of the SME Union in Austria.

Weekend shooting in Yorkshire - 12/13 December 2003 hosted by Intercontinental Hotels.