William "Bill" Newton Dunn (born 3 October 1941 in Greywell, Hampshire) is a British politician. He is a Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands for the Liberal Democrats.

Early life[edit]

He attended the independent Marlborough College in Wiltshire from 1955-9, then gained a Diploma from the University of Paris (the Sorbonne) in 1960. He completed an MA in Natural Sciences (Physics and Chemistry) in 1963 at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He gained a tri-lingual MBA from the INSEAD Business School at Fontainebleau, which no doubt fuelled his interest in European matters where he studied from 1965-6. From 1963-79, he worked in United Kingdom industry.

Parliamentary career[edit]

He was a Conservative Party MEP from 1979 to 1994 for Lincolnshire. After a spell out of the Parliament, he was re-elected a Conservative MEP for the East Midlands in 1999. He defected to the Liberal Democrats in 2000 because he felt that the Conservatives were increasingly negative towards the prospect of Britain playing a leading role in Europe.

Newton Dunn was elected as a Lib Dem MEP for the first time in the European elections, 2004. He claims to have the highest attendance record of all the UK MEPs.

Newton Dunn did not coin the now much-used phrase Democratic deficit in his pamphlet in the 1980s. It first appeared in the manifesto of the Young European Federalists adopted at their congress in Berlin in 1977.

In 2010 he signed the Spinelli Group Manifesto in favour of a Federal Europe.

On 4 July 2012, Newton Dunn was the only British MEP to vote in favour of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Only 38 MEPs voted with Newton Dunn ^[1] (earning them the title "the Dirty Thirty-nine"), while 478 voted against the treaty; the biggest defeat in the history of the EU.

Personal life[edit]

He is married with two children, living in Navenby and West London. His son is Tom Newton Dunn, an award-winning journalist for The Sun newspaper. His daughter is Daisy Newton Dunn, a TV producer for the BBC.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Bill Newton Dunn MEP official site
• Liberal Democrat MEPs
• Bill Newton Dunn profile at the European Parliament
• Bill Newton Dunn profile at the site of the Liberal Democrats
• East Midlands Liberal Democrats site for his constituency party
• YouTube

Offices held[edit]