{{Short description|English politician (1927–2018)}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder |honorific_prefix = Sir |name = Richard Body |honorific_suffix = |image = |office = Member of Parliament <br> for Boston and Skegness |term_start = 1 May 1997 |term_end = 14 May 2001 |predecessor = ''Constituency established'' |successor = Mark Simmonds |office1 = Member of Parliament <br> for Holland with Boston |term_start1 = 31 March 1966 |term_end1 = 8 April 1997 |predecessor1 = Herbert Butcher |successor1 = ''Constituency abolished'' |office2 = Member of Parliament <br> for Billericay |term_start2 = 26 May 1955 |term_end2 = 18 September 1959 |predecessor2 = Bernard Braine |successor2 = Edward Gardner |birth_name = Richard Bernard Frank Stewart Body |birth_date = {{birth date|1927|05|18|df=yes}} |birth_place = Datchet, England |death_date = {{death date and age|2018|2|26|1927|05|18|df=yes}} |death_place = Stanford Dingley, England |party = {{ubl|Conservative (before 2004)|UK Independence Party (2004–2008)|English Democrats (after 2008)}} |spouse = {{marriage|Marion Graham|1959}} |children = 2 |education = Inns of Court School of Law }} '''Sir Richard Bernard Frank Stewart Body''' (18 May 1927 – 26 February 2018)<ref name=Birth>{{cite news|title=Birthdays today|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/archive/2011-5-18.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110519203254/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/archive/2011-5-18.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 19 May 2011 |newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=16 May 2014|date=18 May 2011|quote=Sir Richard Body, former MP, 84 }}</ref> was an English politician. He was Conservative Member of Parliament for Billericay from 1955 to 1959, for Holland with Boston from 1966 to 1997, and for Boston and Skegness from 1997 until he stood down at the 2001 general election. He was a long-standing member of the Conservative Monday Club, and came second in its 1972 election for chairman. A prominent eurosceptic, Body also served as president of the Anti-Common Market League.<ref>Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, 2002, p. 129</ref>
==Family background and early life== Sir Richard was born in Datchet, then in Buckinghamshire, in 1927, the son of Bernard Richard Body and his wife, Daphne (formerly Corbett).<ref name = ODNB>{{cite ODNB|title = Body, Sir Richard Bernard Frank Stewart (1927–2018), politician and farmer|doi = 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000380432|last = Garnett|first = Mark|year = 2022}}</ref> His father was from a Berkshire family resident in Shinfield since the 1720s. Through his paternal grandmother, he was a third cousin of theatre director Val May. He attended the Reading School, and later the Inns of Court School of Law.<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news|url = https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/mar/19/sir-richard-body-obituary|title = Sir Richard Body obituary|work = The Guardian|date = 19 March 2018|access-date = 4 March 2021|last = Bates|first = Stephen}}</ref> He married the former Marion Graham in 1959, and they had a son and a daughter.<ref name = Telegraph>{{cite news|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/03/16/sir-richard-body-conservative-mp-obituary/|title = Sir Richard Body, Conservative MP – obituary|work = The Daily Telegraph|date = 16 March 2018|access-date = 4 March 2021}}</ref> Lady Body was a friend and Bletchley Park colleague of Valerie Middleton, the grandmother of Catherine, Princess of Wales.<ref>{{cite news |title=Kate told of grandmother's war role |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/kate-told-of-grandmothers-war-role-30363606.html |access-date=1 August 2020 |publisher=© BelfastTelegraph.co.uk |date=8 June 2014 |quote=Lady Marion Body, friend of Kate's grandmother Valerie Glassborow, described how as young women they worked together [at Bletchley Park] directing the efforts of listening stations..."The Duchess' grandmother worked on the same desk as me. I had been at secretarial college with those two girls so I knew them very well..}}</ref> He served in the Royal Air Force towards the end of World War II.<ref name = Telegraph/>
==Career== Before finally gaining election at Billericay in 1955, Body had fought several elections across the country without success. He was the Conservative candidate for Deptford at the 1949 London County Council election, then Rotherham in the 1950 general election, Abertillery in a by-election that same year, and then Leek in 1951.<ref name = ODNB/>
In January 1973, Body was an opponent of Prime Minister Edward Heath's Counter-Inflation Bill, stating that the real cause of inflation was too much government spending. Within the Tory party his doubts were shared by Enoch Powell, Ronald Bell and Nicholas Ridley, the last of whom complained that what was needed was a "proper economic policy".<ref>Peter Dorey, ''The Conservative Party and the Trade Unions'', p. 81, referencing ''The Times'' dated 19, 24, and 29 January 1973.</ref>
Rural Buckinghamshire-born, and representing fertile South Holland, Body was an early supporter of environmental causes within the Conservative Party. Coming from a British agriculture perspective, he was highly critical of many aspects associated with the heavily subsidised agriculture associated with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Economic Community (EEC).<ref name = ODNB/> His ''Agriculture: The Triumph and the Shame'', a non-fictional agricultural book exposing, it asserted, its folly, was published in 1983, followed by ''Farming in the Clouds'' (1984). He was also critical over the use of pesticides in agriculture, and led an inquiry on the issue in 1986–87. The enquiry produced a draft report which contained 45 recommendations, mostly influenced by his support for organic farming and use of such methods on his own farms. The report was ignored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which made no response and did not attempt to alter its own favoured methods. Between 1984 and 1993, Body (under the pseudonym "Old Muckspreader") also wrote the "Down on the Farm" column in ''Private Eye'', in which he regularly criticised both CAP and environmental mismanagement of farms.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Private Eye|title=The Agri Brigade|issue=1466|date=22 March 2018}}</ref>
He was knighted in 1986.<ref name=Guardian/>
Body was generally regarded as of the "Old Right" of the party, and often found himself at odds with the John Major government<!--intentional link to DAB page--> and its predecessor, including those influenced by it, who had come to dominate the parliamentary Conservative Party by the mid-1990s. He made such views clear in March 2001, shortly before he retired as an MP, writing in the parliamentary magazine ''The House'' that the rural and, specifically, the agricultural communities of Britain were the victims of major changes to the culture at Westminster in his time in the Commons, as the number of Tory MPs from landowning or farming backgrounds had declined and the number of self-made men from the suburbs on the Tory benches had increased.
In 1993, Body was tricked into believing he was speaking on the telephone with John Major by the impressionist-comedian Rory Bremner.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://inews.co.uk/news/media/rory-bremner-prank-pm-calls-bring-down-government-revealed-1353264|title=Rory Bremner's impression of John Major was so good, there were fears he could 'bring down the government' |author=Adam Sherwin|publisher=The i|date=2 January 2020 |access-date=17 April 2020}}</ref> The incident prompted Cabinet Secretary Robin Butler to warn Channel 4 head Michael Grade against any further calls for fear that state secrets could be inadvertently leaked.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/cabinet-secretary-%E2%80%98voiced-security-fears-over-rory-bremner%E2%80%99s-impersonation-john-major|title=Cabinet secretary 'voiced security fears' over Rory Bremner's impersonation of John Major |author=Jim Dunton|publisher=Civil Service World|date=3 January 2020 |access-date=17 April 2020}}</ref>
In his later years as an MP, Body clearly distanced himself from an increasingly economic-rationalist and internationalist Tory party by associating himself with a number of environmentalist groups who disapproved of large national or free trade groupings and supported smaller, more "natural" and "organic" communities. He has been associated with such long-standing figures of the green movement such as Edward Goldsmith, John Seymour, and John Papworth. Unlike the vast majority of Conservative MPs, Body voted to equalise the age of consent for homosexuals, and also supported the legalisation of cannabis. He called for an English Parliament in his book ''England for the English'', published in April 2001.
Body's fervent euroscepticism led to him being numbered amongst the rebellious "bastards" condemned by John Major in 1993.<ref name="Wynn Davies">{{cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/decision-day-for-popular-rebel-on-majors-barmy-list-patricia-wynn-davies-reports-on-the-fate-of-sir-richard-body-1503654.html| title=Decision day for popular rebel on Major's 'barmy' list | last=Wynn Davies|first=Patricia| date=12 November 1993| newspaper=The Independent| access-date=24 November 2009}}</ref> His actions regarding Europe eventually led to his resigning the Conservative whip for a temporary period. He authored multiple eurosceptic books, including ''A Europe of Many Circles'' (1990)<ref name = Circles>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8d8sAAAAMAAJ|title=Europe of Many Circles: Constructing a Wider Europe|first=Richard|last=Body|date=29 May 1990|publisher=New European Publications|isbn=9781872410012|via=Google Books}}</ref> and ''The Breakdown of Europe'' (1998) (which deliberately echoed the title of Leopold Kohr's book ''The Breakdown of Nations'').<ref name = Breakdown>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RiN0QgAACAAJ|title=The Breakdown of Europe|first=Richard|last=Body|date=29 May 1998|publisher=New European Publications|isbn=9781872410111|via=Google Books}}</ref>
On 10 November 1999, Body put forward an Early day motion in support of the writer Robert Henderson,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/16305|title=CONDUCT OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MEMBER FOR SEDGEFIELD - Early Day Motions - UK Parliament|website=edm.parliament.uk}}</ref> who believed that the security services had interfered with his mail and telephone line after he had written allegedly threatening letters to Prime Minister Tony Blair, his wife Cherie, and various Labour MPs. This followed an article by Henderson in ''Wisden Cricket Monthly'' in 1995 entitled "Is it in the blood?" which suggested that only "unequivocal Englishmen" should play cricket for England.<ref name=Guardian/> Body's motion not only defended Henderson and accused Blair of interfering with Henderson's activities, but referred to "publicly reported incidents of racism within the Labour Party".
==Later life== Body joined the UK Independence Party in 2004, but left UKIP for the English Democrats by 2008.<ref name = ODNB/><ref name=Guardian /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.totalpolitics.com/history/149237/where-are-they-now-sir-richard-body.thtml |title=Where are they now? Sir Richard Body|date = 4 March 2011|last = Linford|first = Paul|website = Total Politics|access-date=13 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405045750/http://www.totalpolitics.com/history/149237/where-are-they-now-sir-richard-body.thtml |archive-date=5 April 2013 }}</ref> He was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.<ref name='HoPBody'>{{cite web|title=Oral history: BODY, Richard (b.1927)|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/oral-history/member/body-richard-1927|publisher=History of Parliament Online|access-date=14 July 2016}}</ref><ref name='BLBody'>{{cite web|title=Sir Richard Body interviewed by Mike Greenwood|url=http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/The-History-of-Parliament-Oral-History-Project/021M-C1503X0031XX-0001V0|publisher=British Library Sound & Moving Image Catalogue|access-date=26 January 2018}}</ref>
Body died at his home in Stanford Dingley, Berkshire, on 26 February 2018 at the age of 90.<ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/news/23755/former-mp-and-rural-campaigner-sir-richard-body-dies.html|title = Former MP and rural campaigner Sir Richard Body dies|work = Newbury Today|date = 25 March 2018|access-date = 4 March 2021}}</ref>
==Books== {{more citations needed|section|date = March 2021}} * ''Agriculture: Triumph and the Shame'' (1982), Avebury * ''Farming in the Clouds'' (1984), Temple Smith * ''Red or Green for Farmers (and the Rest of Us)'' (1987), Broad Leys * ''A Europe of Many Circles: Constructing a Wider Europe'' (1990), New European<ref name = Circles/> * ''Our Food, Our Land: Why Contemporary Farming Practices Must Change'', (1991) Rider * ''The Breakdown of Europe: An Alternative to the European Union'' (1998) New European<ref name = Breakdown/> * ''England for the English'' (2001), New European * ''A Democratic Europe: The Alternative to the European Union'' (2006), New European
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == *{{Hansard-contribs | mr-richard-body | Richard Body }} *[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/oral-history/member/body-richard-1927 Richard Body interview at History of Parliament Online]
{{S-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{Succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Billericay | years = 1955–1959 | before = Bernard Braine | after = Edward Gardner }}
{{S-bef| before = Herbert Butcher }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Holland with Boston | years = 1966–1997 }} {{s-non | reason = Constituency abolished }}
{{s-new | constituency }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Boston and Skegness | years = 1997–2001 }} {{S-aft| after = Mark Simmonds }} {{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Body, Richard}} Category:1927 births Category:2018 deaths Category:Royal Air Force airmen Category:Military personnel from Berkshire Category:20th-century English male writers Category:20th-century English non-fiction writers Category:21st-century English non-fiction writers Category:21st-century English male writers Category:Alumni of the Inns of Court School of Law Category:English Eurosceptics Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:English Democrats politicians Category:English Quakers Category:Knights Bachelor Category:People educated at Reading School Category:Politicians from Buckinghamshire Category:People from West Berkshire District Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Category:UK Independence Party people Category:UK MPs 1955–1959 Category:UK MPs 1966–1970 Category:UK MPs 1970–1974 Category:UK MPs 1974 Category:UK MPs 1974–1979 Category:UK MPs 1979–1983 Category:UK MPs 1983–1987 Category:UK MPs 1987–1992 Category:UK MPs 1992–1997 Category:UK MPs 1997–2001