Roger Casale | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Wimbledon | |
| In office 1 May 1997 – 11 April 2005 | |
| Preceded by | Charles Goodson-Wickes |
| Succeeded by | Stephen Hammond |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 May 1960 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour (until 2017) |
| Alma mater | Brasenose College, Oxford |
| Committees | European Scrutiny Committee |
Roger Mark Casale (born 22 May 1960) is a former Labour Member of Parliament for Wimbledon, having represented the seat from 1997 to 2005.
In June 2013, Casale founded New Europeans, a pro-EU campaigning group.[1]
He was educated at King's College School, Hurstpierpoint College, Brasenose College, Oxford, and Johns Hopkins University.[citation needed]
He gained the Wimbledon seat at the 1997 general election, one of the surprise results of the Labour landslide as Wimbledon had only ever previously been won by the Labour Party at the 1945 general election. Casale successfully retained the seat with a slightly increased majority at the 2001 general election but lost it to the Conservatives at the 2005 general election.[2]
Since losing his seat Casale has run his own parliamentary advisors company, Roger Casale Associates Ltd. In June 2013, Casale founded New Europeans, a pro-EU campaigning group.[1]
In May 2017, Casale resigned from Labour in order to contest the Vauxhall constituency, held by Kate Hoey, a pro-Brexit Labour MP.[3][4] For this purpose, Casale announced the creation of Yes2Europe as a new political party.[5] Lambeth for Europe, the local pro-EU group, did not endorse Casale, instead opting for the Liberal Democrat candidate, George Turner.[6] In the end, Casale did not contest the constituency in the 2017 general election.[7]
In 2019, Casale joined Change UK and became a candidate for the party in the 2019 European Parliament election, contesting the seven-member constituency of East of England.[8] The party polled 3.7%; he was the last candidate on Change UK's party list for the constituency and was not elected.[9]