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Sir Ashley Peter Fox House of Commons, Votes and Proceedings, Tuesday 9 July 2024. (born 15 November 1969) Who's Who for second forename,birthplace, parents, marriage and family details is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Bridgwater since July 2024. He was previously a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England and Gibraltar, and was leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament from 2014 to 2019.
Before being elected as an MEP, Fox worked for 15 years as a solicitor in Bristol, specialising in insurance litigation. He was a partner at Badhams Thompson and an associate at Morgan Cole.
From 1998 to 2000, Fox was chairman of Bristol West Conservative Association. He stood as the Conservative candidate for Bath at the General Election in 2001, finishing second with 29.1% of the vote. In 2002, he was elected as councillor for Westbury-on-Trym on Bristol City Council, a position he held for 8 years.
He was appointed a Knights Bachelor in Theresa May's resignation honours on 10 September 2019.
Fox lives in Bristol with his wife and two children.
In his first mandate (2009–14), Fox served on the Economic & Monetary Affairs, Internal Market and Constitutional Affairs Committees. In his second mandate (2014–19) he served on the Industry, Research & Energy, Economic & Monetary Affairs, and the Constitutional Affairs Committees.
He was the leading British campaigner in the "One Seat Campaign". This was a crossparty effort to scrap the expensive practice of the European Parliament moving from Brussels to Strasbourg every month.
As part of this campaign, he co-authored the Fox-Hafner report which received widespread support and changed the official position of the Parliament in favour of having a single seat in Brussels. This will require a change to the European Treaties the next time they are up for review. In 2011–12, Fox was rapporteur on Corporate Governance in Financial Institutions.
In 2016, he was the shadow rapporteur for Energy Efficiency Labeling.
In 2018, Fox was the rapporteur on the Crowdfunding Report.
His final report in January 2019 was on the need for a Comprehensive European Industrial Policy on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.
During his time in Parliament Fox campaigned on numerous issues and helped steer legislation through the Parliament.
He was Chairman of the European Parliament Innovation Group 2017–19.
He supported the region's cider makers against attempts by the European Union to levy additional taxes on small scale cider producers.
Similarly he supported residents in North Somerset against plans by the Environment Agency to move the sea defences a mile inland to create salt marshes and mudflats between Clevedon and Kewstoke. This would have led to the deliberate flooding of prime agricultural land.
He opposed plans to build an offshore wind farm off the Jurassic Coast in Dorset on the grounds that it would have damaged the local tourist industry. The proposal was finally rejected by the UK Government. Fox was one of the most vocal opponents.
He pushed for reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and supported efforts to help the region's fishing industry.
Fox regularly visited Gibraltar to meet with representatives of the Government, business community and the public.
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