Jake Pugh

Edward Francis Pugh was born on 20 October 1960 in Pembury, Kent, England.[1][2] Both his parents were Conservative Party activists. His older brother, businessman Henry Pugh, died in 2013. His early education was at the private Rugby School.[3] Pugh studied Economics and Politics at Durham University (Hatfield College).[4][5] As a student he played cricket alongside Tim Curtis and Steve Henderson and later played for the 2nd XI at Warwickshire.[6]

He started his financial career as a broker for the former American investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1983, and later worked in the wealth management division for six years for the British investment bank Barclays.[7] Pugh has also worked as the managing director for the futures division of ICAP.[8]

He is the director of PughView Ltd, an independent strategy consultancy.[1][9]

In the 1997 general election, he contested the Richmond Park constituency on behalf of the Eurosceptic Referendum Party. Pugh was fourth in the election with 1,467 votes (2.6%).[10] He voted for Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election.[11]

Pugh voted for Brexit in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. He supports Brexit as he felt that the European Union was undemocratic, and protectionist.[12] In the 2019 European parliamentary election, Pugh stood as a candidate for the Brexit Party in the Yorkshire and Humber constituency. He was third on his party's list, and was elected as one of its three MEPs in the constituency.[13][14]

In the European parliament, Pugh was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.[2]

In August 2020, Pugh argued that the UK should change its foreign policy towards the EU by "doing everything we can to undermine the EU economically, militarily and politically." [15]