Suzanne Evans

Suzanne Evans
Evans speaking at a Chatham House debate on the EU referendum, May 2016
UKIP Health Spokesperson
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 December 2016
Leader	Paul Nuttall
Preceded by	Louise Bours
Deputy Chair of the UK Independence Party & Chair of the UKIP Policy Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 November 2016 Serving with The Earl of Dartmouth
Leader	Paul Nuttall
Preceded by	Diane James
In office 4 August 2014 – 24 February 2016 Served with Neil Hamilton
Leader	Nigel Farage
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Diane James
Personal details
Born	February 1965 (age 51)
Political party	Conservative (before 2013) UK Independence Party (2013–present)
Alma mater	Lancaster University

Suzanne Elizabeth Evans (born February 1965)^[1] is an English journalist and a politician associated with the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

On 6 May 2010 she was elected as a Conservative councillor in the London Borough of Merton Council.^[2] She resigned the Conservative whip on 15 May 2013,^[3] and then became a councillor with UKIP from 29 May 2013^[4] to 22 May 2014.^[5]

Evans was Deputy Chairwoman of UKIP from 2014 to 2016,^[6] with Neil Hamilton,^[7] She was suspended from the party between March and September 2016 and was unable to run in its September 2016 leadership election. She was one of the three candidates in the party's November 2016 leadership election. She was a spokeswoman for the party and the co-author of its election manifesto.

She stood as the UKIP candidate in the Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency in the 2015 General Election, but lost, and now holds no elected political office.

Early life

Suzanne Elizabeth Evans^[8] was born in February 1965.^[1] Her father ran a watchmaking firm in Roushill in Shrewsbury, and her mother was a teacher.^[9]

Evans was educated at Baschurch Secondary Modern School, a state school in the village of Baschurch in Shropshire, now known as the Corbet School, and then at Shrewsbury Sixth Form College. She won a place at Lancaster University (1985–1987), from which she graduated with a BA in Religious Studies.^[10]

Media career

Evans trained as a journalist with the BBC and worked for BBC Radio in various roles from 1987 to 1999.

On BBC Radio 4, these included being a reporter and presenter on the Sunday programme and a reporter for Woman's Hour and for the Today programme.

She also worked for BBC Radio 5, for the BBC World Service and also in several roles on BBC Local Radio.^[10]

Since January 2000, Evans has worked as a freelance public relations (PR) and marketing consultant, as Suzanne Evans Communications.^[11] She was also communications director at Aquarius PR, from March 2006 to May 2013.^[10]

Political life

Evans began her political career as a councillor for the London Borough of Merton in May 2010. She was elected as a Conservative councillor but resigned from the party in May 2013, citing a "poisonous war" within the party.^[11][12] She switched her allegiance to the UK Independence Party, but lost her seat a year later.

She soon became UKIP's deputy chairwoman and head of policy, between July 2014 and February 2016.^[13] She was primarily responsible for writing the UKIP 2015 manifesto after she took over the job from Tim Aker.^[14][15] Her success in producing a coherent and credible manifesto, after the debacle of the party's 2010 manifesto,^[16] and her confident presentation of the completed document, prompted speculation that she might stand as leader of the party, should Nigel Farage resign after the 2015 general election. She was obliged to deny that any such bid was contemplated.^[14][17][18]

In 2014, Evans blamed poor UKIP support in London on the city's high number of "educated, cultured and young" in comments that were seen as ill-judged. She explained that she thought that in London, voters were "more likely, I think, to have read some of the negative press that's been about us, and I think they'd be more likely to believe it" whereas outside London people were more cynical about media reporting.^[19] In April 2015, Evans blamed the British housing shortage on increased demand caused by immigrants, a theory also repeated by Nigel Farage in election debates. She defended herself over owning two properties and a share in a third occupied by her daughter.^[20][21]

Evans was the UKIP candidate for the Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency in the 2015 General Election,^[22] finishing third with 14.4% of the total vote.^[23]

After the 2015 General Election

On 8 May 2015 Nigel Farage recommended her as the Interim Leader of UKIP following his resignation, but within three days the National Executive Committee of the party had rejected the Farage resignation and so he remained leader.^[24]

On 18 June 2015, following comments made by Evans on the BBC's Daily Politics, Evans commented that the public had a "divisive" view of Nigel Farage which may hamper the referendum on UK membership in the EU should he have a role. The UKIP press office then withdrew Evans as a media commentator for UKIP, pending an internal inquiry^[25] — an internal UKIP email leaked to the BBC indicated Evans was no longer regarded as a spokeswoman for UKIP. However, UKIP stated the email had been issued "without proper authority" and that Evans had not, in fact, been dropped as a spokeswoman.^[26]

On 23 March 2016, while still on the UKIP party list for the 2016 London Assembly election, Evans was 'again' suspended from UKIP, for six months, by the party's internal disciplinary committee.^[27] She, in turn, began legal action in the High Court against the decision, on the grounds that rules were allegedly being abused.^[27] On September 23 her sixth month suspension from the party lapsed.

UKIP leadership bid

In October 2016, Evans launched her bid to become leader of UKIP following the resignation of Diane James after just 18 days in the job. Launching her campaign on The Andrew Marr Show, Evans said she'd be the "strong centre" and described herself and fellow candidate Paul Nuttall as "Team Sensible" compared to fellow candidate Raheem Kassam, following perceived extreme comments from the soon-to-resign leadership candidate. When the results were announced, on 28 November 2016, she came second out of the remaining three, and just lost her deposit with 19.3% of the vote.

Charity work

Evans founded the Lipoedema UK charity in 2011 after discovering that she suffers from the condition.^[28]

References

External links

• Suzanne Evans presenting the UKIP 2015 manifesto.