Richard James Ashworth is a Member of the European Parliament for South East England for the Conservative Party and was the Leader of the Conservative Party in the European Parliament from March 2012 to November 2013. He is married with three daughters. Ashworth was educated at The King's School, Canterbury and studied agriculture and management at Seale-Hayne College in Devon. He has been the chairman of a further education college for a number of years as well as serving on several public bodies in the education sector. His interests include music, theatre, sport, aviation and country pursuits. He is the Conservative Spokesman on budgets in the European Parliament. He was a parliamentary candidate for North Devon in 1997, and for the South East region for the 1999 European Parliament elections. Before being elected in 2004 he was a dairy farmer in East Sussex for over thirty years and during this time operated his own dairy business. He has also acted as chairman of United Milk Plc and of NFU Corporate. He was a member of the Minister of Agriculture's food chain advisory committee. 

September 17th, 1947 in Folkestone (Age 77)