Phil Bennion

Phillip Bennion (born 7 October 1954) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He served as a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands from 2012 to 2014, and then from 2019 to 2020.

Bennion was born in Tamworth, Staffordshire and educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. He went on to study agriculture and agronomy at Aberdeen and Newcastle. After returning to Staffordshire to run his family farm, he gained a second degree, in history and economic history, from the University of Birmingham.

Bennion advised Charles Kennedy on agricultural issues during his leadership of the Liberal Democrats. Bennion went on to serve on the party's federal policy committee for eight years.

European parliament

He was second on the party list for the West Midlands constituency at the 2009 European Parliament election, but the party's 12% share of the vote entitled them to only one seat. When Liz Lynne stepped down in February 2012, electoral rules meant that Bennion, as the next Liberal Democrat candidate on the list, took her seat. He stood for re-election in 2014 and was placed top of his party's list of candidates, but he lost his seat as the Liberal Democrats polled 5.6% of the vote, too little to secure one of the West Midlands' seven seats. He re-gained his seat in 2019.

He sat on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Sub-Committee on Human Rights, and also acted as a substitute on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, as a member of the 9th Parliament from July 2019 to January 2020.

Electoral History

He served as a councillor on Lichfield District Council from 1999 to 2011,

Staffordshire County Council, 2002–2005. By-election win in 2002 narrowly lost in May 2005.

Parliamentary candidate for Lichfield (UK Parliament constituency), 1997 & 2001, for the Tamworth (UK Parliament constituency) in 2005, Telford (UK Parliament constituency) in 2010 and Birmingham Hodge Hill (UK Parliament constituency) in 2015 and 2017

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Michael Fabricant	20,480	49.1	6.2
	Labour	Martin Machray	16,054	38.5	3.9
	Liberal Democrats	Phil Bennion	4,462	10.7	0.6
	UKIP	John Phazey	684	1.6	N/A
Majority			4,426	10.6	10.1
Turnout			41,680	65.9	11.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	5.05

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Brian Jenkins	18,801	43.0	6.0
	Conservative	Christopher Pincher	16,232	37.1	0.5
	Liberal Democrats	Phillip Bennion	6,175	14.1	2.4
	Veritas	Patrick Eston	1,320	3.0	N/A
	UKIP	Tom Simpson	1,212	2.8	1.1
Majority			2,569	5.9	6.5
Turnout			43,740	61.0	3.2
	Labour hold		Swing	2.8

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	David Wright	15,977	38.7	9.5
	Conservative	Tom Biggins	14,996	36.3	3.2
	Liberal Democrats	Phillip Bennion	6,399	15.5	1.4
	UKIP	Denis Allen	2,428	5.9	1.2
	BNP	Phil Spencer	1,513	3.7	N/A
Majority			981	2.4
Turnout			41,313	63.5	4.8
	Labour hold		Swing	6.3

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Liam Byrne	28,069	68.4	16.4
	Conservative	Kieran Mullan	4,707	11.5	0.2
	UKIP	Albert Duffen	4,651	11.3	9.7
	Liberal Democrats	Phil Bennion	2,624	6.4	21.3
	Green	Chris Nash	835	2.0
	Communist	Andy Chaffer	153	0.4
Majority			23,362	56.9	32.6
Turnout			41,039	54.5	1.1
	Labour hold		Swing	8.3

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Liam Byrne	37,606	81.1	12.7
	Conservative	Ahmereen Reza	6,580	14.2	2.7
	UKIP	Mohammed Khan	1,016	2.2	9.1
	Liberal Democrats	Phil Bennion	805	1.7	4.7
	Green	Clare Thomas	387	0.8	1.2
Majority			31,026	66.9	10.0
Turnout			46,394	61.3	6.8
	Labour hold		Swing	5.0

European Parliamentary Candidate for West Midlands (European Parliament constituency) in 1999, 2004 and 2009, being elected to No2 on the Liberal Democrats’ regional list in 2009 taking his seat in 2012 after Liz Lynne stepped down. Phil was re-elected as no1 on the Liberal Democrats' regional list in 2019.

2019

European Election 2019: West Midlands
List		Candidates	Votes	%	±
	Brexit Party	Rupert Lowe (1) Martin Daubney (2) Andrew England Kerr (5)	507,152	37.66	+37.66
	Labour	Neena Gill (3)	228,298	16.95	-9.76
	Liberal Democrats	Phil Bennion (4)	219,982	16.33	+10.77
	Green	Ellie Chowns (6)	143,520	10.66	+5.40
	Conservative	Anthea McIntyre (7)	135,279	10.04	-14.27
	UKIP		66,934	4.97	-26.52
	Change UK		45,673	3.39	+3.39
Turnout			1,355,222	33.1%

Anthea McIntyre became an MEP in November 2011 when the relevant provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon came into effect, her addition being based on the 2009 vote. Phil Bennion became an MEP on the resignation of Liz Lynne.