Alex Phillips (TV presenter)

Alexandra Lesley Phillips (born 26 December 1983) is a British journalist and former politician. She served as a Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South East England constituency from 2019 to 2020. She was the second candidate on the party's list for the constituency after party leader Nigel Farage.[1] Phillips was previously head of media at the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which she left in September 2016. She was a GB News presenter between June 2021 and September 2022. In February 2023, Phillips joined Reform UK.

For the former MEP for South East England and Mayor of Brighton and Hove, see Alexandra Phillips (Green politician).

Alexandra Phillips
Born
Alexandra Lesley Phillips

(1983-12-26) 26 December 1983
Gloucester, England
EducationDenmark Road High School
Sir Thomas Rich's School
Alma materDurham University
Cardiff University
Occupations
  • Broadcaster
  • Former MEP
Notable workGB News
  • McCoy & Phillips
  • The Great British Breakfast
  • The Afternoon Agenda
  • We Need To Talk About...
Political partyReform (since 2023)
None (2021–2023)
Brexit (2019–2020)
Conservative (2016–2019)
UKIP (before 2016)
Member of the European Parliament
for South East England
In office
2 July 2019 – 31 January 2020
Preceded byDiane James
Succeeded byConstituency abolished

Early life and career

Alexandra Lesley Phillips was born on 26 December 1983 in Gloucester.[2] She has an older brother. Her early education was at the grammar schools Denmark Road High School, and Sir Thomas Rich's School in Gloucester. She studied English literature and philosophy at St. Mary's College, Durham University, and broadcast journalism at Cardiff University.[3][4][5]

Phillips made a film about the UK Independence Party (UKIP) as a student journalist while covering the 2007 National Assembly for Wales election. She reported that this experience was an important factor in her later joining the party as she was enthralled by then leader Nigel Farage's personality, and supported the party's positions on the expansion of grammar schools, supporting fracking, and Euroscepticism.[6] Prior to joining UKIP, Phillips had worked as a local journalist for ITV, and later BBC Wales.[5]

Political career

Phillips worked as UKIP's head of media for three years.[6] Soon after the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum in which she voted for Brexit, she left UKIP, at around the same time as Farage, and in September joined the Conservatives, a few weeks after Theresa May had been elected as leader.[6] She stayed on as a media advisor to Nathan Gill, a UKIP MEP and Welsh Assembly member who had become an independent in the Assembly after being beaten by Neil Hamilton for the position of group leader there.[7] She explained her reasons for joining the Conservative Party as her admiration for then Prime Minister Theresa May's positions on Brexit, grammar schools, fracking, and the infighting within UKIP.[8]

In May 2019, Phillips was announced as the Brexit Party's candidate for the South East England constituency in the European parliamentary election. A Green Party candidate also called Alexandra Phillips ran in the same constituency.[9] Both were elected in the election.[10] On 30 May 2019, less than a week after the election, Phillips appeared on the panel of the BBC's weekly Question Time.[11] In July of the same year, Phillips admitted to working for SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, on Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's successful 2017 re-election campaign. She had previously denied working for Cambridge Analytica, but said the work she did was sub-contracted out by SCL.[12][13] Cambridge Analytica was a British political consulting firm that closed in 2018 after being found to have harvested millions of Facebook users' data without their consent for political advertising.[14] In the European Parliament, Phillips was a member of the Committee on Development, and was part of the delegation for relations with South Africa.[2]

On 2 August 2019, Phillips was selected as the Brexit Party's prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Southampton Itchen.[15] However, on 11 November 2019, the Brexit Party announced that it would not stand in incumbent Conservative seats.[16] The following day, Phillips announced that she would not be voting in the general election as she had been "disenfranchised" by her party.[17] Her term as MEP ended in January 2020 when the UK withdrew from the EU.[18] In February 2023, she joined Reform UK (successor to the Brexit Party) as a policy adviser to party leader Richard Tice.[19]

Broadcasting career

Phillips presented a twice-weekly show on talkRADIO and is a contributor to The Daily Telegraph.[20] She co-hosted an afternoon programme on GB News with Simon McCoy between June and August 2021.[21][22] After McCoy moved to the breakfast show, she was given her own show, The Afternoon Agenda, in August 2021.[23] She left GB News in September 2022 after her show was cancelled.[24] In July 2023 Alex began presenting a Saturday afternoon programme on TalkTV.

References
  1. "2019 European elections: List of candidates for the South East". BBC News. 28 April 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  2. "Alexandra Lesley Phillips". European Parliament. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  3. Alexandra Phillips [@ThatAlexWoman] (20 October 2020). "Mary's when it was still single sex. It's where they put any female who wasn't from the 'right' sort of school" (Tweet). Retrieved 10 September 2022 – via Twitter.
  4. University of Durham Congregation, Friday 1 July 2005 – 2pm, Durham: Durham University, p. 7
  5. "Big Interview: Gloucester's Alexandra Phillips – UKIP's head of media". Gloucestershire Echo. 24 November 2015. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  6. Phillips, Alexandra (20 September 2016). "Alexandra Phillips: Why I left UKIP and joined May's Conservative Party". Conservative Home. Archived from the original on 28 August 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  7. "UKIP Wales a war zone, says Gill aide". BBC News. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  8. Asthana, Anushka; Mason, Rowena (16 September 2016). "Nigel Farage aide defects to Tories claiming a mass exodus from Ukip". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  9. le Duc, Frank (7 May 2019). "Two candidates called Alexandra Phillips in European elections". Brighton and Hove News. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  10. "Alexandra Phillips: Confusion as South East elects two MEPs with same name". The Irish News. 27 May 2019. Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  11. Evans, Albert (31 May 2019). "Question Time: Brexit Party MEP flounders as she's challenged over her claim hard or soft Brexit is a 'false construction'". i. Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  12. Tull, Ayshah (16 July 2019). "Brexit Party MEP worked for Cambridge Analytica". Channel 4. Archived from the original on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  13. "Texas Media Company Hired By Trump Created Kenyan President's Viral 'Anonymous' Attack Campaign Against Rival, New Investigation Reveals". Privacy International. 15 December 2017. Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  14. Solon, Olivia (2 May 2018). "Cambridge Analytica closing after Facebook data harvesting scandal". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  15. @brexitparty_uk (2 August 2019). "Candidate Announcement 2#: Congratulations, Alexandra Phillips! Our Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for #Southampton #Itchen" (Tweet). Retrieved 29 October 2019 – via Twitter.
  16. "Brexit Party rules out standing in Tory seats". BBC News. 11 November 2019. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  17. @BrexitAlex (12 November 2019). "I will be one of millions of people who will not vote at all in the General Election. That breaks my heart. I have voted in every election since I was 18 and been involved in politics for over a decade. And I have been disenfranchised by my own party" (Tweet). Retrieved 12 November 2019 – via Twitter.
  18. Uberoi, Elise; Fella, Stefano (30 January 2020). "Brexit next steps: Replacing the UK's MEPs". UK Parliament. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  19. Hope, Christopher; Gear, Giles (3 February 2023). "Alexandra Phillips: The new female face of Reform UK". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  20. "Alexandra Phillips". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  21. Tobitt, Charlotte (1 April 2021). "GB News briefing: Kirsty Gallacher and other latest appointments, launch plans and where to watch". Press Gazette. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  22. Sherwin, Adam (11 June 2021). "Simon McCoy: 'Why I quit the BBC for GB News – and no more waiting for Royal babies'". i. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  23. Wilkes, Neil (7 August 2021). "Simon McCoy moves to GB News breakfast as Alex Phillips gets own show". Media Mole. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  24. Sherwin, Adam (1 September 2022). "GB News presenters Colin Brazier and Alex Phillips axed in 'bloodbath' schedule shake-up". i. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
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