Jonathan Arnott

Early life and career

Arnott was born in Sheffield. At the age of 15 he enrolled at the University of Sheffield, graduating with a MMath in mathematics.

Arnott was Head of Mathematics at Handsworth Christian School. He is known for his belief that those in politics should keep doing a real-world job, and therefore he continued to teach on a part-time basis until his election as an MEP. His first major role in UKIP was as the party's General Secretary; he left the position after six years in August 2014.

Political career

Arnott joined UKIP in 2001, and stood in the 2004 and 2009 European elections, being UKIP's No.2 list candidate in the Yorkshire and the Humber region on both occasions. Until 2008 he was the part-time local elections co-ordinator for UKIP, working with 300 candidates to increase the number of UKIP councillors. At the 2008 UKIP conference, Arnott was unveiled as the new General Secretary for the party. Arnott resigned as General Secretary of UKIP after six years in the position in August 2014.

UKIP leadership bid

In July 2016, Arnott launched his bid to become leader of UKIP following the resignation of Nigel Farage. He gained the support of Yorkshire and the Humber MEP's Jane Collins and Mike Hookem. Arnott, said he wanted to appeal to the millions of voters who did not support UKIP in last year's general election, but backed Brexit in the EU referendum. He withdrew from the contest in August, acknowledging he couldn't win and saying he refused to be controversial just to grab headlines.

General elections

In the general election of 2005 he stood as a UKIP candidate for the Sheffield Attercliffe constituency, coming fourth overall with 4.5% of the vote, losing his deposit. Arnott was then selected to contest the Sheffield South East constituency for the 2010 general election. Just before the election, he took part in the second half of a Radio 5 Live debate on crime with Alan Johnson, Chris Grayling and Chris Huhne. He spoke 4 times, calling for a reduction in police bureaucracy, abolition of jail sentence remission and rehabilitation of offenders. Arnott came 5th with 4.6% of the vote, losing his deposit but increasing the UKIP vote by 0.2%.

In the 2015 general election, he was the UKIP representative in the BBC Daily Politics Education Debate and in the young people's Newsbeat debate on the economy and housing. He stood for the Easington Constituency – the constituency in which he lived coming second in the safe Labour seat with 18.7% of the vote, ahead of both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidates.

Local elections

In the 2011 local elections Arnott came second in the Woodhouse ward with 13.1% of the vote, behind the Labour party with 62.9%. He then led UKIP in the 2012 local elections, the party coming fourth overall with 10.25% of votes, up from 1.6% in the comparable 2008 local elections. Arnott himself finished second in Woodhouse ward with 22.1%, behind the Labour party with 60.2% of votes.

Police and Crime Commissioner election

On 12 October 2012, Arnott was announced as the UKIP candidate for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in South Yorkshire coming 4th with 11.54% of the vote.

European Parliament

On Sunday 25 May 2014 it was announced that Arnott had been elected as UKIP's first ever MEP for the North East of England. Arnott used his acceptance speech on election night to highlight what he described as an election campaign that had been "marred by a campaign of hate, waged against UKIP by those who fear a realignment of British politics".

Following Arnott's election to the European Parliament, it was announced that he was to represent the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group on both the Committee on Budgets and the Budgetary Control Committee. Arnott's maiden speech was in Strasbourg in a debate on youth unemployment, where he highlighted how the North East of England had the highest rate of youth unemployment in the UK, with at least one in four young people unemployed. In the speech he criticised Labour's support of the EU's flagship 'youth guarantee scheme' labelling it as a 'guaranteed failure'; highlighting previous criticisms from the International Labour Organisation.

Since his election Arnott has more speeches in the European Parliament than any other British MEP. At 97.23% his Parliamentary voting record is substantially higher than that of all other UKIP MEPs, although he also votes against the Party whip more than any other UKIP MEP.

Personal life

Arnott is a chess enthusiast who is a Candidate Master, former member of the England Under-21 squad and captained the Yorkshire county side from 2002–04. He regularly competes in the 4NCL international chess league and the Gibraltar International chess festival. He represented White Rose in the European Club Cup in 2010 and 2011, with the team finishing as the top British side by 20 places in 2011. His highest rating of 2191 was achieved in 2012 and his rating of 2173 in July 2015 ranks him 169th in England and 12281 in the world.
He has also represented Great Britain at the board game Stratego, helping the British team to the bronze medal at the 2012 World Championships. It was reported that he would be competing again in 2015.

For the past 15 years, Arnott has been part of a team on Scunthorpe Hospital Radio, broadcasting the home games of Scunthorpe United.