Bill Newton Dunn

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Bill Newton Dunn (born 3 October 1941) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in multiple periods: 1979–1994 for Lincolnshire, 1999–2014 for the East Midlands, and 2019–2020 for the East Midlands. He left the Conservative Party in 2000 over disagreements about Europe and joined the Liberal Democrats, later being re-elected as a Lib Dem MEP in 2004 and 2009.

Early life and education
Born in Greywell, Hampshire, he is the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Owen Frank Newton Dunn and Barbara Brooke. He grew up in North Warnborough and attended Marlborough College. He studied Natural Sciences at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, spent time at the Sorbonne in 1960, earned an MA in 1963, and completed an INSEAD MBA in 1966. He worked in industry, including a stint at Fisons, before entering politics.

Political career
Newton Dunn first ran for Parliament in 1974. He was a Conservative MEP for Lincolnshire from 1979 to 1994. After losing in 1994, he returned as a Conservative MEP for the East Midlands in 1999. He switched to the Liberal Democrats in 2000 and was elected as a Lib Dem MEP in 2004 and 2009. He helped popularize the idea of a “democratic deficit” in the 1980s. In 2010 he supported the Spinelli Group’s push for a federal Europe, and in 2012 was the only British MEP to vote for ACTA. He lost his seat in 2014, stood in the 2017 general election, and served on the Richmond, London Council from 2018. He was elected again as Lib Dem MEP for the East Midlands in 2019, becoming the longest-serving MEP at the start of the Ninth Parliament, a position he held until the UK left the EU in 2020.

Personal life
In 1970 he married Anna Terez Árki; they have two children, Tom Newton Dunn (a journalist) and Daisy Newton Dunn (a BBC TV producer). The family divides their time between homes in Lincolnshire and London. He is a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Haberdashers’ Company.