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James Frederick Nicholson (born 29 January 1945) is a Northern Irish Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician, who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Northern Ireland from 1989 to 2019.

Prior to his election to the European Parliament, Nicholson had been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newry and Armagh from 1983 until his defeat in the by-elections of 1986, when he and others resigned and stood again to protest against the Anglo-Irish Agreement; Nicholson lost his seat to Seamus Mallon of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the only seat to be lost.

Career

Nicholson was born in 1945 in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Educated locally, he later worked as a farmer on the family farm. He joined the Ulster Unionist Party in the early 1970s and was the Secretary/Organiser of Mid-South Armagh Unionist Association from 1973 to 1983.

Westminster

Nicholson was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newry and Armagh in the 1983 general election for the UUP. At Westminster, he served on the Agriculture Select Committee. In 1999, he joined the European Democrats wing of the European People's Party - European Democrats group, the largest group in the Parliament, a eurosceptic wing which also contained the UK's Conservative MEPs. He was one of five Quaestors in the European Parliament, becoming the first ever MEP from Northern Ireland to hold such a senior position when elected on 21 July 2004; he was re-elected in 2007. In 2009, he was elected as a Conservatives and Unionists candidate and subsequently joined the European Conservatives and Reformists Group. He served on the European Parliament's Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety between 2014 and 2017.

Nicholson describes himself as a "euro-realist"; he is opposed to the creation of a federal Europe and is against the adoption of the euro as the currency of the United Kingdom. His party lost the seat at the election to Naomi Long of the Alliance Party.

Personal life

Nicholson married Elizabeth Gibson in 1968 and had six sons and one daughter. His wife died in May 2015 after a long illness.

References

  • Jim Nicholson Website
  • Official UUP biography
  • Conservative Party Biography
  • European Parliament profile