Michael Eric Heaver (born 22 September 1989) is a British broadcaster and former politician. He was elected as a

Brexit Party Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Nigel Farage has been Leader of Reform UK and Richard Tice deputy leader since 2024. It has five members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons and one membe ...

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) for the East of England constituency in the 2019 election and served in that role until the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU. Previously, he was the chair of the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP, ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of parliament (both through defect ...

(UKIP)'s youth wing, Young Independence.

Early life

Michael Eric Heaver was born on 22 September 1989 in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

. His early education was at Coleridge Community College and

Hills Road Sixth Form College Hills Road Sixth Form College (commonly referred to as HRSFC, Hills Road or just Hills) is a public sector co-educational sixth form college in Cambridge, England, providing full-time A-level courses for approximately 2400 sixth form students f ...

in Cambridge. He appeared on the panel of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's topical debate programme '' Question Time'' on 10 July 2008, at the age of 18, after winning the people's panellist competition. In 2011, Heaver graduated from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

with a bachelor's degree in European Politics.

Career

Politics

Heaver joined the

(UKIP) at the age of 17, serving twice as the chair of their youth wing, Young Independence. He stood as a candidate for the party in the 2014 European parliamentary election in the

East of England East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact ...

constituency. He also ran UKIP candidate

Tim Aker Timür Mark "Tim" Aker (born 23 May 1985) is a British politician who was a Member of the European Parliament for the East of England region. He was elected as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate in 2014. He was head of UKIP's Policy Unit ...

's unsuccessful campaign for the

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Essex, England. It lies on the north bank of the River ...

constituency in the 2015 general election and subsequently served as

Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage ( ; born 3 April 1964) is a British politician and broadcaster who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Clacton (UK Parliament constituency), Clacton and Leader of Reform UK since 20 ...

's press officer until early 2017. In 2018, Heaver left UKIP and joined the Conservative Party. He stood as a candidate for the

in the 2019 European parliamentary election. Heaver was second on his party's list behind only chairman

Richard Tice Richard James Sunley Tice (born 13 September 1964) is a British businessman and politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Boston and Skegness and Deputy Leader of Reform UK since 2024, having previously been the chairman of the p ...

, and was elected as one of its three MEPs in the

constituency. In the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, he was a member of the

Committee on Budgetary Control The Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) is a Committees of the European Parliament, committee of the European Parliament. with 30 permanent members. It can be seen as the European Union's internal "political watchdog", seeking to identify undesi ...

and was part of the delegation for relations with the

Korean Peninsula Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

. On 26 September 2019, the Brexit Party announced that Heaver was their

prospective parliamentary candidate In British politics, a prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) is a candidate selected by political parties to contest under individual Westminster constituencies in advance of a general election. The term originally came into use because of ...

for the

Castle Point Castle Point is a local government district with borough status in south Essex, England, lying around east of London. The borough comprises the towns of South Benfleet, Hadleigh and Thundersley (where the council is based) on the mainland, a ...

constituency in Essex. However, the party announced on 11 November 2019 that it would not stand in incumbent Conservative seats.

Journalism

Heaver resigned from Farage's staff in January 2017 and, backed by political donor Arron Banks, launched the news website ''Westmonster,'' modelled on American

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

sites like ''

Breitbart News ''Breitbart News Network'' (; known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an Radical right (United States), American far-rightMultiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * syndicated news, opinion, and commentar ...

'' and the ''

Drudge Report The Drudge Report (stylized in all caps as DRUDGE REPORT) is an American-based news aggregator, news aggregation website founded by Matt Drudge, and run with the help of Charles Hurt and Daniel Halper. The site prior to the 2020 United States p ...

''. It is now defunct, and the company behind it was struck off the Companies Register in 2020. Heaver has a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel with over 150,000 subscribers, also started in January 2017, and is the

GB News GB News is a British free-to-air, editorial, opinion-orientated television and radio news channel. The channel is available on Freeview (UK), Freeview, Freesat, Sky UK, Sky, YouView, Virgin Media and via the internet on Samsung TV Plus, LG web ...

Community Editor.

References

External links

European Parliament Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heaver, Michael Eric 1989 births Living people Alumni of the University of East Anglia Brexit Party MEPs MEPs for England 2019–2020 Politicians from Essex Politicians from Cambridge People from Cambridgeshire People educated at Hills Road Sixth Form College