Roger Moate

Sir Roger Denis Moate (12 May 1938{{cite web |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Fcommons.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090810231350/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Fcommons.htm |archive-date=10 August 2009 |title=Historical list of MPs: constituencies beginning with "F" |work=Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages |url-status=usurped |access-date=3 January 2010}} – 15 April 2019) was a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom.

Biography

Moate was educated at Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith and was an insurance broker.{{Cite web|title=Moate, Sir Roger (Denis)|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U27757|website=Who's Who|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U27757 }} He first stood for Parliament for the Faversham constituency at the 1966 general election,{{cite news |url=http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge66/i08.htm |title=UK General Election results 1966 |work=Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources |access-date=3 January 2010}} losing to Labour's Terence Boston. When the Redcliffe-Maud Report was campaigned against by rural district councils, Swale R.D.C. was forced to opt out of the campaign due to the similarity of "R.E. Mote" with its then-prospective candidate R. D. Moate.{{cite news |title=Too near to be remote |newspaper=The Times |date=6 November 1969 |page=4 }} By coincidence, Moate had moved the motion opposing Redcliffe-Maud at the Conservative Party conference.

{{cite news |title=Remote Clash (Times Diary) |newspaper=The Times |date=7 November 1969 |page=10 }}

He was elected Member of Parliament for Faversham at the 1970 general election,{{cite news |url=http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge70/i08.htm |title=UK General Election results 1970 |work=Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources |access-date=3 January 2010}} and served as MP until 1997. He was a member of the select committee on Agriculture from 1995 to 1997.

Moate was a staunch Eurosceptic who had opposed Britain's entry into the European Economic Community in the early 1970s and who kept a 'roll of honour' of the 41 Conservative MPs who had voted against joining the EEC in 1971.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/04/19/sir-roger-moate-robustly-eurosceptic-long-serving-tory-mp-unwittingly/ |title=Sir Roger Moate, robustly Eurosceptic and long-serving Tory MP unwittingly caught up in the 'War of Jennifer's Ear' – obituary |newspaper=The Telegraph |date= 19 April 2019|access-date=20 October 2019}} He was still hostile to the EEC in the early 1990s, becoming one of the 'Maastricht Rebels' who repeatedly voted against the Government's attempts to ratify the Maastricht Treaty.{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/major-turns-charm-on-maastricht-rebels-1496672.html |title=Major turns charm on Maastricht rebels |website=www.independent.co.uk |date= 10 March 1993|access-date=20 October 2019}}

At the 1997 election, the Faversham constituency was split to form Faversham and Mid Kent and Sittingbourne and Sheppey. Moate contested the latter seat, but lost to the Labour candidate, Derek Wyatt.{{cite news |url=http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/constit/400.htm |title=Sittingbourne & Sheppey |work=Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources |access-date=3 January 2010}} Meanwhile, the former seat was retained for the Conservatives.

Moate was knighted in 1993 and lived in Newnham, near Sittingbourne, before moving to Faversham, where he died at home from cancer in April 2019, aged 80. He was married twice and had three children.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/04/19/sir-roger-moate-robustly-eurosceptic-long-serving-tory-mp-unwittingly/ Telegraph: Sir Roger Moate, robustly Eurosceptic and long-serving Tory MP unwittingly caught up in the ‘War of Jennifer’s Ear’ – obituary]