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Lance Forman

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Lance Forman
MEP
Member of the European Parliament
for London
Assumed office
2 July 2019
Preceded bySyed Kamall
Personal details
Born (1962-10-13) 13 October 1962 (age 61)
Islington, London, England
Political partyConservative (before 2019, since 2020)[1]
Other political
affiliations		Brexit (2019)
Independent (2019-2020)
SpouseRene Anisfeld
Children3
EducationHaberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge

Lance Philip Anisfeld (born 13 October 1962), known professionally as Lance Philip Forman,[2][3][4] is a British politician and businessman, who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London since 2019.[5]

Early life

Forman was born in Islington[6] and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1985, as Lance Anisfeld, he was President of The Cambridge Union.[4][7][8][9]

Business career

He worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers before being employed as a Special Adviser, 1991–92, to Peter Lilley, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.[4][10]

Forman runs H. Forman & Son, a smoked salmon business in Fish Island, London.[11] He is the fourth-generation owner of the company.[12] The business faced threats of a local boycott in the wake of Lance Forman's election as a London MEP for the Brexit Party, a group which won only 6% of votes locally in the May 2019 European Parliament elections.[13] Police investigations were opened in the run-up to the elections after a 10-metre swastika was spray-painted on the side of the business in a suspected anti-semitic attack.[14][15] Forman has claimed that he does not believe his business was targeted due to his Jewish heritage but rather because he supports Brexit.[16]

According to a report by The Observer, Forman also previously specialised in the privatisation of enterprises in former eastern European Soviet states and held real estate in Ukraine. Forman told The Observer that he acted "as a consultant" in this regard.[17]

MEP

Forman was elected as a Brexit Party MEP for the London constituency in 2019. He resigned the party whip in December 2019 to support the Conservative Party's Brexit strategy.[18]

Forman is considered to be the most prolific Twitter user of all MEPs, having the highest total number of tweets.[19] A number of Forman's tweets have gone viral and been considered controversial, such as claims that Jeremy Corbyn is a Nazi, that Islamophobia in the Conservative party is "made up by the left",[20] that the "British taxpayer has paid for a nice fleet" of Mercedes for MEPs in Brussels (while posting a picture of what was actually a Skoda)[21][22] as well as sharing a video of himself apparently unable to operate the voting machines at the EU parliament, which he claimed was evidence that there was "no democracy here".[23][24]

He is in favour of "reducing the size of the state" and removing "red tape" which he considers harmful to businesses.[25] He has claimed that EU packaging and hygiene regulations have cost his business hundreds of thousands of pounds annually, which is the principal reason he is in favor of Brexit.[16]

Forman is a climate change denier.[26][27]

Family

His son, Oliver (Ollie) Anisfeld is the CEO of Turning Point UK, the British branch of Turning Point USA, a controversial, right-wing, pro-Trump organisation.[28][29][30][31]

Together with his wife, Rene Anisfeld, Forman is a patron of the charitable organisation One Family UK, which aids victims of terror attacks in Israel.[32]

References

  1. ^ https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1225490/Brexit-news-Annunziata-Rees-Mogg-Lance-Forman-John-Longworth-Lucy-Harris-Conservative
  2. ^ "European election 2019 – London-wide results". www.lewisham.gov.uk. Lewisham Council. 24 May 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  3. ^ "Lance Anisfeld, CEO". uk.linkedin.com. LinkedIn. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Frazer, Jenni (13 December 2015). "Take the London Cure with East End smoked salmon family firm". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  5. ^ "The UK's European elections 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  6. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  7. ^ "The Seven Sins of Lance Forman". The Critics Guide. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  8. ^ "Lance Forman". Biteback Publishing. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  9. ^ Cawthorne, Richard (8 September 2016). "Between a lox and a hard place!". Jewish News. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  10. ^ "Written Answers, 21 July 1994". Hansard. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  11. ^ Forman, Lance (17 May 2019). "A very Jewish Brexit". Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  12. ^ Chaplain, Chloe (8 May 2019). "Huge swastika painted on the business belonging to Jewish candidate for the Brexit Party". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  13. ^ "European Elections: Hackney Wick salmon tycoon wins London seat for Brexit Party", Hackney Citizen, 28 May 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019
  14. ^ "Swastika painted on building of Jewish Brexit party candidate", The Guardian, 8 May 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019
  15. ^ "30ft swastika painted on business belonging to Jewish Brexit party candidate, as police announce investigation", The Telegraph, 8 May 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019
  16. ^ a b Liphshiz, Cnaan. "A Jewish Brexit Party politician owns London's oldest smoked salmon factory". Times of Israel. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  17. ^ "Caviar trader mounts his own Olympic bid" by Nick Mathiason, The Guardian, June 26, 2005. Retrieved June 20, 2019
  18. ^ "Three MEPs quit Brexit Party to back PM's EU deal". BBC News. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  19. ^ Simon, Fréderic; Archambault, Hannah (28 June 2019). "Revealed: The Twitter mug-shot of newly-elected MEPs". Euractiv.com. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  20. ^ Bloom, Dan (26 April 2019). "Brexit Party candidate claimed Tory Islamophobia was 'made up by the left'". Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  21. ^ "A Brexit Party MEP made a claim about his EU transport and everybody made the same joke". thepoke.co.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  22. ^ Zatat, Narjas (12 June 2019). "Brexit Party MEP mocked after falsely bragging about taxpayers paying for 'fleet of Mercs'". Indy 100 from Independent. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  23. ^ Peat, Jack (12 June 2019). "Video of Brexit Party MEP figuring out voting machine goes viral". The London Economic. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  24. ^ Jankowicz, Mia (11 June 2019). "Brexit Party MEP mocked for appearing to claim that EU parliament voting machines are rigged". The New European. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  25. ^ "Brexit Party candidate Lance Forman speaks with Parliamentary Review". The Parliamentary Review. 16 May 2019.
  26. ^ "Forman & Son managing director Lance Forman doesn't blame disaster on climate change" by Lance Forman, Newham Recorder, December 16, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2019
  27. ^ elect, Lance Forman MEP (25 January 2018). "I was being sarcastic. Climate change is a myth. Political Climate change is the real danger. PC will kill us all off before suntans".
  28. ^ "Turning Point UK: Jacob Rees-Mogg and Tory MPs support new branch of ‘sinister’ right-wing US group", The Independent, February 4, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019
  29. ^ "The battle over Britain's newest student movement", BBC, February 9, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019
  30. ^ "Days After Its Disastrous British Launch, Turning Point Has Already Lost One Of Its Star Recruits", BuzzFeed, February 8, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019
  31. ^ "The free-market youth movement that behaves like Apple", The Spectator, March 11, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019
  32. ^ "ONE FAMILY UK – One Family UK".
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