William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth

The Right Honourable The Earl of Dartmouth FCA
Deputy Chair of the UK Independence Party
In office 24 February 2016 – 22 January 2018 Served alongside Diane James (2016) Suzanne Evans (2016–2017)
Leader	Nigel Farage Diane James Paul Nuttall Steve Crowther (acting) Henry Bolton
Preceded by	Neil Hamilton
Succeeded by	Margot Parker
UKIP Spokesperson for International Trade
In office 24 February 2016 – 22 January 2018
Preceded by	Roger Knapman
Succeeded by	Vacant
Member of the European Parliament for South West England
In office 14 July 2009 – 1 July 2019
Preceded by	Roger Knapman
Succeeded by	James Glancy
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 14 December 1997 – 11 November 1999 as a hereditary peer
Preceded by	Gerald Legge
Succeeded by	Seat abolished
Personal details
Born	(1949-09-23) 23 September 1949 Westminster, London, England
Political party	Independent (2018–present) UK Independence Party (2007–2018)
Other political affiliations	Conservative (before 2007)
Spouse	Fiona Campbell ​ (m. 2009)​
Domestic partner	Claire Kavanagh
Children	1
Parents	Gerald Legge, 9th Earl of Dartmouth (father) Raine McCorquodale (mother)
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford Harvard Business School
Website	williamdartmouth.com

William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth FCA (born 23 September 1949), styled Viscount Lewisham from 1962 to 1997, is a British politician and hereditary peer, usually known as William Dartmouth.

From 2009 to 2019, Dartmouth sat in the European Parliament as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England. He was elected for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and served as national spokesman on trade from 2010 to 2018. He resigned from UKIP in 2018 due to his dissatisfaction with the direction of the party.

Early life and education

Dartmouth is the eldest son of the 9th Earl of Dartmouth and Raine McCorquodale, the daughter of romantic novelist Dame Barbara Cartland. He became a stepbrother of Lady Diana Spencer when in 1976 his mother remarried.

Dartmouth was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he was elected an officer of the Oxford University Conservative Association and of the Oxford Union Society. He graduated BA, later promoted to MA, and proceeded to the Harvard Business School, where he graduated MBA.

Life and career

Dartmouth qualified as a chartered accountant, which was also the occupation of his father Gerald Legge, 9th Earl of Dartmouth.

At the general election of February 1974, as Viscount Lewisham, Dartmouth unsuccessfully contested Leigh, Lancashire, for the Conservatives, and at the election of October 1974 he fought Stockport South for them.

In 1975, he became a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. In 1997, he inherited his father’s peerages, and as Earl of Dartmouth sat as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords until 1999, when the first Blair ministry’s House of Lords Act 1999 removed all but 92 hereditary peers from Parliament. In January 2007, Dartmouth announced he was leaving the Conservatives in favour of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), citing concerns about the policies of David Cameron, then Leader of HM Opposition.

At the European Parliament election of 2009, Dartmouth was elected as the second UKIP MEP for the South West England region and re-elected in 2014, when he was the first UKIP MEP on the regional list. In the European Parliament he sat with the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group (later the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy) and served on the Committee on International Trade. In 2010, he became UKIP’s national spokesman on Trade and Industry and in February 2016 was appointed as one of the party's two national Deputy Chairmen. He was the author of many UKIP, EFD, and EFDD publications. On 22 January 2018, following UKIP's National Executive Committee vote of no confidence in leader Henry Bolton on the previous day, Dartmouth stood down as trade and industry spokesman, placing further pressure on Bolton to resign.

In September 2018, Dartmouth resigned from the UK Independence Party, citing concerns about the behaviour of the new Leader, Gerard Batten, and complaining that the party was “widely perceived as both homophobic and anti-Islamic”. Dartmouth condemned Batten for leading the party towards the far right and denounced his approval of and support for extreme right-wing groups and “outlandish individuals”. Dartmouth said he would not be joining another political party and would serve the rest of his term in the European Parliament as an Independent, continuing to represent the South West of England and Gibraltar.

Family and personal life

Legge arms

In June 2009, Dartmouth married Melbourne-born former model Fiona Campbell, now styled Lady Dartmouth, whose first husband, Matt Handbury, is a nephew of Rupert Murdoch. They subsequently divorced.

Dartmouth has a son, Gerald Glen Kavanagh-Legge (born 2005), from his previous relationship with the television producer Claire Kavanagh.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Dartmouth
• pedigree of William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth
• Debrett's People of Today
• European Parliament profile
• Lord Dartmouth's website
• http://www.ukipmeps.org/