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Ben Habib

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Benyamin Habib
Official portrait, 2019
Co-Deputy Leader of Reform UK
In office
7 October 2023 – 11 July 2024
Serving with David Bull
LeaderRichard Tice
Nigel Farage
Preceded byDavid Bull
Succeeded byRichard Tice
Member of the European Parliament
for London
In office
2 July 2019 – 31 January 2020
Preceded byGerard Batten
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born (1965-06-07) 7 June 1965 (age 59)
Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Political partyReform UK (since 2019)
Other political
affiliations		Conservative (before 2019)
EducationRugby School
Alma materRobinson College, Cambridge
ProfessionPolitician, businessman

Benyamin Naeem Habib (born 7 June 1965) is a Pakistani-British politician, who served from 2023 to July 2024 as Co-Deputy Leader of Reform UK, alongside David Bull.[1] He and Bull were removed from their position and replaced by Richard Tice as the new Deputy Leader following the 2024 general election.[2] He was elected as a Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2019 European parliamentary election. He remained in the role until the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU. Before becoming involved with Reform UK, Habib was a Conservative Party donor.[3][4]

Habib is the chief executive of First Property Group, a commercial property investment and fund management company.

Early life, education and career

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Benyamin Naeem Habib was born on 7 June 1965 in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.[5][6] His father is a Pakistani Punjabi and his mother is British and was born in Isleworth.[7][8] He emigrated to the UK in 1979 and attended Rugby School, a private school in Warwickshire.[3][9] Habib is a former president of its alumni association, the Rugbeian Society.[10][11] He then attended Robinson College, Cambridge, in 1984, where he studied natural sciences.[12] After graduating, Habib became an analyst in the corporate finance department at former financial services firm Lehman Brothers in 1987.[13][14] In 1989, he was appointed finance director at insurance broker PWS Holdings.[15][14]

In 1994, Habib entered the properties business as the managing director of private property development company, JKL Property, before starting his own property fund company First Property Group plc six years later.[15] The company, for which he is the chief executive, operates in the UK, Poland, and Romania.[16][17]

Political career

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Habib was a Conservative Party voter and donor.[3][4] He supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum and argued the UK's trade opportunities would be better outside of the European Union (EU), that being part of the EU meant that the UK had ceded sovereignty, and that there needed to be greater control of immigration.[13][18] He had also discussed in interviews how uncertainty around Brexit could be an opportunity for profit for his business.[19][20]

In the 2019 European parliamentary election, Habib stood as a candidate for the Brexit Party in the London constituency. He was first on his party's list, and was elected as one of its two MEPs in the constituency.[21][22] He was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, and part of the delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia.[5] According to Transparency International, Habib was the richest MEP elected in the Ninth European Parliament based on annual earnings from his second job. He declared €960,000 annual earnings from his company, First Property Group.[23]

In January 2020, Habib voted in favour of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, which included the Northern Ireland Protocol, being ratified by the EU Parliament.[24]

In 22 February 2020, Habib published an article on Brexit-Watch.org where he described the Protocol as being a unique advantage to Northern Ireland business that would help the province grow into a tiger economy. He also recommended Unionists should not resist its implementation and instead "make it work for its own great benefit and that of the United Kingdom".[25]

In March 2023, he was made co-deputy leader of Reform UK (previously The Brexit Party) party with David Bull, who had been deputy since 2021.[26][27] At the same time he became the party's Brexit and the Union spokesman. He was the party's candidate for the Wellingborough by-election in February 2024. Habib finished third of eleven candidates, with 13% of the vote, the party's best result at a by-election.[28][29] He was again candidate for Reform in the new Wellingborough and Rushden constituency at the 2024 general election where he came third with 21.5% of the vote.[30]

In April 2024, during an interview with Julia Hartley-Brewer, he advocated in favour of leaving immigrants to drown when they try to cross the Channel by boat.[31]

In July 2024, Habib and Bull were removed as deputy leaders of Reform UK and replaced by Richard Tice.

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Despite having previously voted to ratify it, in February 2021 Habib, together with Jim Allister, leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice, and Baroness Hoey, applied for a judicial review of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. They were later joined in their litigation by Arlene Foster, First Minister of Northern Ireland, David Trimble, the inaugural First Minister of Northern Ireland; and Steve Aiken, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.[32] The main cause of the legal action was to examine the lawfulness and constitutionality of the Northern Ireland Protocol, in regards to their claimed incompatibility of the Protocol and related regulations with the Acts of Union 1800.[33] In June 2021, the High Court of Northern Ireland (HCNI) in Belfast dismissed the legal challenge on several grounds, including that it is in conflict with the Acts of Union 1800 and thus unconstitutional.[33][34] The HCNI ruled that although the Protocol conflicted with the Acts of Union the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 also has constitutional effect and had implicitly repealed aspects of the Acts.[35] The court also rejected arguments based on the Northern Ireland Act, the European Convention on Human Rights and European Union law. Likewise, the court rejected a challenge to the Regulations, which provided that the consent mechanism in the Protocol was not to be subject to the cross-community voting rules in the Assembly.[36] On 14 March 2022, that decision was affirmed by the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal, with the judgment making reference to the "obvious inconsistency" of Habib first voting in favour of the Withdrawal Agreement and Northern Ireland Protocol, as stated in paragraph 11 of his sworn affidavit, but then subsequently calling for a repudiation.[37][38]

On 30 November 2022, they appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.[39] On 8 February 2023, the Supreme Court agreed with the previous courts and dismissed the challenge.[40][41][42] On 21 March 2023, it was confirmed by Northern Ireland Office minister Lord Caine (in a written reply to a question submitted by Kate Hoey) that the UK Government had spent a total of £196,567 on legal fees associated with defending the court challenges against the Northern Ireland Protocol.[43][44]

See also

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List of British Pakistanis

References

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  1. ^ "Reform UK Departmental Team Responsibilities". Reform UK. March 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  2. ^ Habib, Ben [@benhabib6] (11 July 2024). "I have just been informed by Nigel Farage that Richard Tice is taking over as deputy leader of the party. Consequently I no longer hold that position. I am considering my position more generally in light of this change. I have long held concerns about the control of the party and the decision making processes. I will reflect on all of this. The key for me is that Reform UK stays true to the promises made to the British people. The movement we have created does not belong to us, it belongs to the people. We are obliged and indebted to the British people" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ a b c Lea, Robert (17 June 2019). "Off to Brussels with a Brexit message". The Times. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.(subscription required)
  4. ^ a b Mason, Rowena (18 April 2019). "Nigel Farage has near-total control of Brexit party, constitution suggests". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 August 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  5. ^ a b "Ben Habib". European Parliament. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  6. ^ "Benyamin Naeem Habib". Sutton Council. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  7. ^ Habib, Ben (23 November 2023). "The Tories have shattered the immigration dream". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 January 2024. Retrieved 19 January 2024.(subscription required)
  8. ^ Payne, Adam (6 May 2019). "The Brexit Party promises Theresa May's Conservatives 'a really good kicking' in the European elections". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  9. ^ "First Property placement". Rugby School. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  10. ^ "Floreat 2014" (PDF). Rugby School. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  11. ^ "Alumni Community". Rugby School. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  12. ^ "Annual Appeal". Robinson College, Cambridge. 15 June 2016. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  13. ^ a b Brooks, Charlie (16 June 2016). "'Immigration is like a Ponzi scheme' Charlie Brooks meets Telegraph reader Ben Habib ahead of next week's European Union referendum". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  14. ^ a b "Ben Habib". First Property Group. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  15. ^ a b "Profile". Information Management Network. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  16. ^ "First Property raises funds to gain from post-Brexit property weakness". Reuters. 17 July 2017. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  17. ^ "Ben Habib". First Property Group. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  18. ^ "EU is making a free trade deal difficult, Brexit Party candidate says". CNBC. 22 May 2019. Archived from the original on 31 August 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  19. ^ Singh, Arj (12 April 2019). "Exclusive: Candidate In Farage's Brexit Party Is Profiting From EU Exit Uncertainty". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  20. ^ Evans, Greg (17 July 2019). "Brexit Party MEP mansplains the economy to Emily Maitlis after being accused of profiting from a no-deal". The Independent. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  21. ^ "2019 European elections: List of candidates for London". BBC News. 28 April 2019. Archived from the original on 19 June 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  22. ^ "European elections 2019: Lib Dems make London MEP gains". BBC News. 27 May 2019. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  23. ^ Rankin, Jennifer (26 September 2019). "Brexit party MEPs are EU's biggest earners in second jobs, study finds". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  24. ^ "Brexit deal approved by the European Parliament | News | European Parliament". European Parliament. 29 January 2020. Archived from the original on 29 January 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  25. ^ "Northern Ireland's unique opportunity to become a Tiger Economy". Brexit-Watch. 22 February 2020. Archived from the original on 23 February 2021.
  26. ^ McGovern, Eimear (3 January 2024). "Ben Habib announces election candidacy after NI kept him in 'political arena'". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 January 2024. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  27. ^ "Ben Habib Appointed Reform UK Joint Deputy Leader". Reform UK (YouTube). Archived from the original on 17 February 2024. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  28. ^ "Labour wins Wellingborough seat in by-election". BBC News. 16 February 2024. Archived from the original on 16 February 2024. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  29. ^ "Reform Anticipating 'Best Result Yet' In Wellingborough By-Election". Politics Home. 14 February 2024. Archived from the original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  30. ^ "Declaration of Result of Poll - Election of a Member of Parliament for Wellingborough and Rushden (July 2024)". North Northamptonshire Council. 5 July 2024. Archived from the original on 6 July 2024. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  31. ^ Mitchell, Archie (24 April 2024). "Reform UK deputy leader says UK should 'absolutely' let migrants drown in the Channel". The Independent. Retrieved 21 September 2024. Ms Hartley-Brewer asked: "Then you would leave them to drown?" "Absolutely," he replied. "They cannot be infantalised to the point that we become hostage to fortune."
  32. ^ "Judge rejects all grounds of challenges arguing terms of NI protocol unlawful". The Irish Times. 30 June 2021. Archived from the original on 10 September 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  33. ^ a b O'Carroll, Lisa (30 June 2021). "Belfast court dismisses legal challenge to Brexit Northern Ireland protocol". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 June 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  34. ^ "Summary of Judgment – In re Jim Allister and others (EU Exit)", NI Judiciary, 30 June 2021, archived from the original on 30 June 2021, retrieved 30 June 2021
  35. ^ Campbell, John (30 June 2021). "Brexit: NI Protocol is lawful, High Court rules". BBC News. Archived from the original on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  36. ^ "Allister (James Hugh) et al's Application and In the matter of the Protocol [2021] NIQB 64". Judiciary NI. 30 June 2021. Archived from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  37. ^ O'Carroll, Lisa (14 March 2022). "Northern Ireland protocol is lawful, court of appeal rules". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 April 2022. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
  38. ^ "In Her Majesty's Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland on Appeal from the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland (Judicial Review) Between: James Hugh Allister, Benyamin Naeem Habib, Steve Aiken, The Rt Hon. Arlene Isobel Foster, Baroness Catharine Hoey of Lylehill and Rathlin and William David, The Rt Hon. Baron Trimble of Lisnagarvey and Secretary of State For Northern Ireland [2021] ICOS 2021/18686/01" (PDF). Judiciary NI. 14 March 2022.
  39. ^ "In the matter of an application by James Hugh Allister and others for Judicial Review (Appellants) (Northern Ireland)". Supreme Court UK. 30 November 2022. Archived from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  40. ^ "Judgment In the matter of an application by James Hugh Allister and others for Judicial Review (Appellants) (Northern Ireland) [2023] UKSC 5" (PDF). Supreme Court UK. 8 February 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  41. ^ "Northern Ireland Protocol is lawful, Supreme Court rules". BBC News. 8 February 2023. Archived from the original on 8 March 2023. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  42. ^ The Supreme Court. "In the matter of an application by Clifford Peeples for Judicial Review (Appellant) (Northern Ireland) – The Supreme Court". www.supremecourt.uk. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  43. ^ "Northern Ireland Protocol: Legal Costs". Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  44. ^ "UK Government spent almost £200,000 defending NI Protocol legal challenges". The Independent. 21 March 2023. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
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