Christopher Gill
|
|
Christopher Gill (born October 28, 1936) is a politician in the United Kingdom.
Gill was born in Wolverhampton where he was a local councillor and was educated locally at Birchfield Preparatory School and then Shrewsbury School. His national service was in the Royal Navy, serving aboard HMS Modeste and HMS Birmingham. He is a director of his family's sausage making business.
Gill served as Conservative Party member of Parliament for Ludlow from 1987 to 2001, when he stepped down. He was known as the Butcher from Ludlow, due to his family company being a meat processing firm. During the Maastricht Rebellion, Nicholas Soames threatened to: "close every abattoir you own". He had the Conservative Whip withdrawn over the EC Finance Bill on November 28 1994; he was one of Maastricht Rebels. He was a dedicated constituency MP, who fought against the closure of local cottage hospitals.
Gill was known for being an expert on European Union legislation regarding farming and also unusually (for an landlock constituency) fishing. He let his membership of the Conservative Party lapse whilst still a member of Parliament, but continued to work as a Conservative MP, despite addressing meetings of the UK Independence Party. He is currently chairman of the libertarian leaning Freedom Association.