Robert Kilroy-Silk

Robert Kilroy-Silk's public life has been a series of dramatic reinventions, each marked by a confrontational and media-savvy style. He first entered the public eye as a Labour MP, but found his true mass audience as the host of 'Kilroy,' a daytime BBC talk show where he mediated heated discussions on social issues for nearly two decades. His political instincts, however, never faded. After leaving the show, he re-emerged as a fierce and telegenic critic of the European Union, winning a seat in the European Parliament in 2004. There, he became a vocal and often isolated figure, his rhetoric amplifying anti-EU sentiment in the UK long before the Brexit referendum was a mainstream proposition. Though his own political party ventures flared and faded, his relentless focus on sovereignty and immigration gave a sharp, populist edge to the Eurosceptic movement, influencing the tone and terms of the debate that would eventually convulse the nation.