Jeffrey William Titford is an British politician, former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, and member of the European Parliament for the East of England.

He had been at various times a member of the Conservative Party (for whom he was a local councillor), the New Britain Party and the Referendum Party. He was the most successful Referendum Party candidate in the 1997 general election, winning nearly 10 percent of the vote in Harwich. However, later that year he joined the UKIP.

In 1999 Titford became one of the first UKIP representatives to win a seat in the European Parliament. In 2000 UKIP's then leader Michael Holmes MEP resigned amidst serious infighting. Jeffrey Titford narrowly won the ensuing leadership election, promising to reunite the party and restore its effectiveness as a campaigning organisation. This he largely succeeded in doing. The Guardian newspaper described him in 2001 as "an emollient man, a sort of Willie Whitelaw figure, and an ideal leader for such a fractious party"[1] In October 2002, Titford stepped down as party leader for health reasons, but continued as an MEP. He was re-elected with a greatly increased vote in the European elections of 2004.

Before entering politics he was a businessman, and was president of the National Association of Funeral Directors .

External link

• Official website