MEPs celebrate the life of Lord Plumb

07 December 2022

On Wednesday 7 December 2022, Director of the British Agriculture Bureau, Robin Manning was pleased to join the Former Members’ Association of the European Parliament roundtable “President Lord Plumb: A Historical Appraisal”

The roundtable was attended by former Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and colleagues of Lord Plumb who himself served as an MEP from 1979 to 1999, and as President of the Parliament from 1987 to 1989, the only Brit to undertake this duty. The roundtable opened with a video message from Roberta Metsola, current President of the European Parliament, who hailed Lord Plumb’s many achievements, including being the first President to address the European Council.

Professor N. Piers Ludlow. Professor of International History at the London School of Economics gave a political assessment of Lord Plumb’s service, analysing the attributes that facilitated Lord Plumb’s successful European career. These included a huge knowledge of agriculture, a pragmatic approach to politics, a position that was sufficiently detached from mainstream British politics that allowed a level of objectivity, and a pro-European outlook, cultivated well in advance of him becoming an MEP.

David Harley, a former member of Lord Plumb’s cabinet, talked of Lord Plumb’s inclusive and approachable style. He was pragmatic and outward looking, an internationalist. He formed close working relationships that were highly effective in getting things done.

Former MEP Monica Baldi talked warmly of how Lord Plumb reached out to her when she first joined the European Parliament and recalled working with him in the African, Caribbean, and Pacific partnership.

The European Parliamentary Research Service produced the following briefing ahead of the roundatble, surmising Lord Plumb's public service:

Lord Henry Plumb was the only British national ever to be elected President of the European Parliament, during almost 50 years of United Kingdom (UK) membership of the European Union. He passed away on 15 April 2022 aged 97 and the Parliament paid tribute to him at the opening of its plenary session on 2 May 2022, including holding a minute of silence. Speaking on that occasion, Parliament's President, Roberta Metsola, described him as a 'great European and a passionate believer in the power of politics to improve lives'. She referred to his leadership in expanding the powers and prestige of the European Parliament, highlighting in particular that he was the first European Parliament President to address the European Council, and also the first to award the Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Henry Plumb was first elected as an MEP at the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979, as a member of the Conservative Party, representing the Cotswolds constituency.

A farmer by background, he served as president of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales, and as chair of COPA, the European Association of Agricultural Producers. Building on this experience, he was elected chair of the Committee on Agriculture during the first term of the new Parliament. Plumb then served for five years as chair of one of the European Parliament's political groups, the European Democratic Group, following which he was elected President of Parliament in January 1987 and held the office for two and a half years. During his third and fourth terms, he became increasingly involved in development policy; he was chair of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States – European Union (ACP-EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly for five years.

Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973 and made a life peer in 1987, Plumb took the title Lord Plumb of Coleshill. After retiring from the European Parliament in 1999, he was an active member of the UK House of Lords until 2017. He continued his public work up to the end of his life, notably through the Henry Plumb Foundation, which he created in 2012 to help young people develop initiatives in the farming and food sectors.