Obituary: Philip Bushill-Matthews, MEP for West Midlands and Leader of Conservative MEPs

Philip Bushill-Matthews, MEP for West Midlands and Leader of Conservative MEPs, 1943-2023

Philip Bushill-Matthews was born in Droitwich, raised in Birmingham, worked in the Black Country, and represented the West Midlands as a Member of the European Parliament. His parents were well-known in Birmingham – William Bushill-Matthews MBE was vice-president of the Crescent Theatre Birmingham Royal, and Phyllis Bushill-Matthews received an OBE for her Birmingham-based charity work.

Philip lived in and around Leamington Spa for over 30 years and contributed regularly to the Leamington Courier. Philip Bushill-Matthews died in December 2023 and the private family funeral was held on January 3, 2024.

He started out as a pea salesman. As a businessman, he ended up incurring the wrath of the Spice Girls through producing cut-price ‘Spice Curls’ crisps bearing some rather uncanny likenesses. After decades in increasingly senior leadership roles in manufacturing, he was elected as a politician, on a mission to reduce European red tape. Along his journey, he authored three books, including one titled “The Gravy Train” about his experience as a European lawmaker. He obtained a First-class degree in archaeology aged 70.

He was an almost lifelong Conservative – after being elected Leader of Conservative MEPs, he switched allegiance only four years ago - aged 76 - to the Liberal Democrats, believing the Conservatives were no longer the party he had joined.

At Oxford University, where he read English, he threw himself into acting, becoming secretary of the OU Dramatic Society and performing with an English film, television, and stage actor, Michael York.

After university, he thought about going into acting as a profession, but considered it wouldn’t pay the bills. So he began his alternative choice of career: a salesman driving around a Bird’s Eye frozen pea van. He met the woman he wanted to marry at a friend’s party and, within a year, approached his prospective father-in-law, Charles, an accountant, to ask for Angela’s hand in marriage. Charles was not initially impressed by Philip’s profession: “That’s hardly going to keep my daughter in the manner in which she’s accustomed”, he commented drily. Philip wowed his future in-laws over with a delicious home-cooked meal,

Philip and Angela married a few months later, and then he never cooked again.

He moved on from van driving, and became the youngest director of Birds Eye Wall's Ltd at the age of 38.

He went on to become managing director of a series of food manufacturing companies, gaining a place on Harvard’s Advanced Management Program along the way. It was while he was MD at Redmill Snack Foods, maker of low-priced pub-favourite Mr Porky pork scratchings, that he introduced an innovative new product - a cheap packet of crisps with a cartoon image on the front showing five dancing girls bearing a striking resemblance to some well-known figures. He (probably not so) innocently decided to name it: “Spice Curls”. The Spice Girls soon discovered this serious threat to their personal brand, and wrote to him asking him to cease and desist. Philip was known for always standing his ground, but in this case decided he was no match for girl power. The production run came to a halt.

Philip experienced the red tape of Brussels at first-hand. The EU Directive on Health and Safety meant that the snack food company he was managing director of had to keep up with all the rules around fire extinguishers. They initially had to be different colours for electrical, chemical, or gas fires. Then the new rules required all extinguishers to be red, with just a discreet coloured badge to indicate the all-important different contents. “The changes were costly and misguided, but we were stuck with them” was Philip’s view. It was only much later he learnt the UK held the European record for adding prescriptive details that were never in the original directive.

He became increasingly frustrated by EU regulations made by politicians with no experience of the real world. Although a political novice, he decided to quit his successful 30-year career in business to become a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

Philip’s venue for his 30th Wedding Anniversary in 1997 with Angela was perhaps not the most romantic of choices: Blackpool, for his first Conservative Party Conference. Previously his political experience was limited to hosting local Conservatives for pre-voting drinks: during Margaret Thatcher’s era, he would place a life-size cardboard cutout of her outside the family home at election time. At the conference, Philip put his name forward for an impromptu two-minute speech, light-heartedly proposing a different name for the 1922 committee. Jeffrey Archer followed straight after him. It was at that moment Angela realised her husband was going into politics. She knew before he did. It turned out that speech was just the first of many.

He applied to be on the Conservative MEP selection shortlist at the same time as Winston Churchill MP (grandson of Winston Churchill), Nick Budgen MP, and Norman Lamont MP. The selection panel discarded their applications - yet interviewed Philip. He passed.

Philip was raised in Birmingham, worked in the Black Country, and lived in Warwickshire so he chose to stand as Conservative MEP for the West Midlands. After a long public campaign which included sharing the catchphrase “in Europe, but not run by Europe” with as many constituents as possible, he was elected. He found himself aboard the ‘gravy train’ to Brussels.

And so began ten years of getting up at 4.45am on a Monday morning to drive to the airport, so he could work in Brussels for three weeks out of four every month. And then for 48 days a year, he - along with all other MEPs and 3,000 others - headed to Strasbourg, the other hub of the European Parliament. At weekends, Philip would be back in the UK to respond to constituents’ letters and attend events in his capacity as MEP. On one occasion, a constituent left a phone message late at night: he was disturbed by the war in the Middle East and wanted to talk to Philip urgently. Philip promptly called him back at 7.30am the following morning. After a pause, a drowsy voice replied he had solved the problem. If only the constituent could make himself known to our politicians now. Or perhaps he was just too tired to engage.

After months of Philip’s hectic schedule and absence from wider family, his four-year old grandson Asim asked his mum, “Has Grandpa died?”

Philip’s main European Parliament committee, the undisputed source of the most red tape, was the Employment and Social Affairs Committee where he was appointed Conservative spokesman. He made it his mission to stop the mounting burden of bureaucracy. He was particularly excited by his negotiation of amendments to the Chocolate Directive, which finally enabled British dairy milk chocolate to be sold throughout the EU.

Philip was not known for joining demonstrations. Yet he joined in a protest in Paris on behalf of British beef in autumn 1999, protesting a French boycott. He carried a banner with ten other colleagues. On the banner was the slogan: ‘Marie Antoinette said 'Let them eat cake', British Conservative MEPs say 'Let them eat British beef'.

MEPs had a reputation for living extravagantly on expenses. After he was elected Leader of the Conservative MEPs in 2008, he put in place a 'Right to Know' system whereby Conservative MEPs openly declared their expenses online. While Philip was leader, David Cameron wanted to pull Conservative MEPs out of a wider European coalition, despite binding commitments to be part of the group made by the previous PM and by each of the individual MEPs. Philip vehemently disagreed: Philip and David fell out over that.

He played an active part in MEP delegations to Pakistan and Syria, and in the West Midlands spoke at events held in a plethora of venues, including temples, gurdwaras and mosques. His perspective was probably broadened by having two children who became Muslim.

Philip stood down as an MEP in 2009. At that point, Angela and their three children - Julie, a banker, Lucy, a charity adviser and Will, a lawyer – and eight grandchildren were able to see rather more of him. He encouraged the youngest generation to relentlessly question the world they saw around them. He had done the same thing with his own children. “Never assume anything” was his well-known family adage.

He briefly came out of political retirement in 2016 to campaign for Remain in the Brexit debate. This campaigning even extended to his grandchildren. Unusually left in charge of three of them age 13 to 17 for a couple of hours at his home, he asked them each to prepare a speech as to why Britain should remain in the EU. By the time the teenagers were picked up, they were all wearing ‘Britain Stronger in Europe’ T-shirts.

In 2019, unimpressed by the direction the Conservative Party was going in and believing it was no longer the party he joined, he switched allegiance, joining the Liberal Democrats.

Aged 70, Philip undertook a degree in archaeology, studying alongside twenty-somethings, achieving a First. He then embarked on a third career as an arts lecturer, both on cruise ships and dry land, speaking based on his research. The last public lecture he gave was for the Arts Society in Stourbridge on “The Atlantic Slave trade: Perspective from Europe and the Americas” in October 2023. He commentated on political issues for Brussels-based news portal EU Political Report, submitting articles even in the last weeks and days of his life from his hospital bed. The founder of the EU news portal, James Wilson, sums up Philip’s values: “As a politician, he had integrity, honesty and truthfulness” and goes on to add: “all qualities sadly in short supply in today’s political classes.”

Philip Bushill-Matthews, MEP and leader of Conservative MEPs, was born on January 15, 1943 and died after a long illness on December 10, 2023, aged 80. He was the author of ‘The Gravy Train’ (with a foreword by William Hague) , ‘Who Rules Britannia’, and ‘The Eras of La Gomera’.