Bill Newton Dunn is a former chairman of the Conservative group in the European Parliament and has been an MEP since 1979. He is vice-chairman of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.

He has been an MEP since 1979 and has represented East Midlands since 1999 and Lincolnshire 1979-94.

He is a former Chairman of the Conservatives in the European Parliament (1993-4), former Conservative spokesman in the European Parliament on the Transport, Rules, and Foreign Affairs committees.

He defected from the Tories in November 2000.

Born in 1941, he is married to Anna and has two children.

He is the author of The Devil Knew Not, a political thriller which guides the reader through the labyrinth of Brussels, Strasbourg, the European Parliament, the Commission and the Council of Ministers.

Posts in the European Parliament:

• Member, Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee
• Alternate member of the Justice & Home Affairs Committee
• Alternate member of the committee on Alleged Use of European Countries by the CIA for the Transport and Illegal Detention of Prisoners

Education: Marlborough College (1955-1959); Diploma, University of Paris (Sorbonne) (1960); MA (Natural Sciences), Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (1960-1963); MBA (trilingual), INSEAD, Fontainebleau (1965-1966)

Parliamentary Experience: British Lib Dem MEPs whip, Former Chair of the Conservative Group in the European Parliament, former Conservative spokesman on Transport, Rules and Foreign Affairs committees