Daniel Hannan

Daniel John Hannan, Baron Hannan of Kingsclere (born 1 September 1971), is a British writer, journalist, and former politician serving as an adviser to the Board of Trade since 2020. He is the founding president of the Initiative for Free Trade. A member of the Conservative Party, he was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 1999 to 2020.

Hannan was the first secretary-general of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE), serving from 2009 to 2018. He was one of the founders of Vote Leave, one of the organizations that campaigned to leave the EU in 2016, and served on its board throughout the referendum. He played a prominent role in the referendum campaign, participating in a number of public debates. He stood down from the European Parliament at the United Kingdom's exit from the EU in 2020.

Lord Hannan of Kingsclere has written columns for The Sunday Telegraph, the International Business Times, ConservativeHome, and the Washington Examiner, as well as occasional columns in the Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, The Spectator, and The Wall Street Journal. He is editor-in-chief of The Conservative, a quarterly journal of center-right political thought. He has published several books.

Hannan was born on 1 September 1971 in Lima, Peru. His mother was a Scot who had been working in the British Embassy in Lima. His father, whose family origins are Ulster Catholic, had been educated in the UK and had served in Italy during the Second World War with the North Irish Horse of the British Army. Hannan grew up on his parent's farm outside Lima, attending school and university in Britain. He was educated at Winchester House School and Marlborough College.

Hannan read Modern History at Oriel College, Oxford. He was active in university politics, being elected President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1992 – when Nicky Morgan was his opponent. As an undergraduate, he established the Oxford Campaign for an Independent Britain in 1990, a group campaigning against closer EU integration – a theme that shaped his later career.

On 12 September 1992, he organized a protest at the EU finance ministers' summit in Bath against the European Exchange Rate Mechanism membership. Three days later, the pound was forced to leave the system in an event known as Black Wednesday. In an article published in The Daily Telegraph, Hannan claimed that his protest activities were connected with this event.

After graduating in 1993, Hannan became the first director of the European Research Group, an organization for Eurosceptic Conservative MPs chaired by Michael Spicer. From 1994 to 1995, he served as Chairman of the National Association of Conservative Graduates. In 1996, he became a leader-writer at The Daily Telegraph under Charles Moore. He wrote leaders for the paper until 2004 and has written blogs and columns ever since. 

Hannan has since contributed to The Spectator and many other newspapers and magazines around the world. In 1997, he became an adviser and speechwriter to Michael Howard, then Shadow Foreign Secretary. In 2001, during the general election campaign, while already serving as an MEP, he wrote speeches for William Hague, the Conservative leader. In 1999 he stood down from his posts at the European Research Group and Conservative Graduates.

Hannan was elected to the European Parliament in 1999. His first act on being elected was to write an article in The Daily Telegraph about the expenses and allowances available to MEPs, which caused great controversy. In 2000, he launched a public appeal to support the underfunded "No" campaign in Denmark's referendum on joining the euro. The Guardian newspaper accused him of running the appeal from his parliamentary office. Still, it withdrew the accusation when it was shown that he had, in fact, operated out of his own flat. Denmark ultimately voted against joining the euro.

Hannan was re-elected at the top of his party's list for the South East England constituency in 2004. He has re-elected again in 2009 and 2014, each time at the head of the Conservative list[18] – a ranking determined by party members in a postal ballot. In December 2018, Hannan ranked 738 out of 751 MEPs for participating in roll call votes in the European Parliament.