Gerard Joseph Batten (born 27 March 1954) is a British politician who served as the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2018 to 2019. He was a founding member of the party in 1993, and served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London from 2004 to 2019. Early life Batten was born in Romford, Essex, on 27 March 1954. He grew up on the Isle of Dogs in the East End of London. Before entering politics he was employed as a salesman for British Telecom. Political career Batten was a member of the Anti-Federalist League, an early Eurosceptic cross-party political alliance from 1992 to 1993. He was one of the founding members of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in 1993, and was its first General Secretary from 1994 to 1997. He has been a member of UKIP's National Executive Committee several times. Batten was first elected as a Member of the European Parliament in the 2004 European Parliamentary Election for the London constituency on the basis of seeking the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. During his first term of office Batten served as a member of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Defence (from July 2004), and was appointed as UKIP's official spokesman on Security and Defence. In this role, he attacked the-then Labour government's plans to introduce identity cards. At the 2007 UKIP annual conference, he was selected as the party's candidate to contest the 2008 London Mayoral Election, in which he received a 1.2% share of the vote. Batten stood in the 2009 UKIP leadership election, coming second in a field of five behind the winner Lord Pearson. From 2009 to 2014, he held the office of UKIP's Chief Whip in the European Parliament. From 2016 to 2018, Batten served as the UKIP Spokesman for Exiting the European Union. Alexander Litvinenko and Romano Prodi In early April 2006, Batten stated that a London constituent and former FSB agent, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Litvinenko, had been told that Romano Prodi, Italian Prime Minister and former President of the European Commission, had been the KGB's "man in Italy"; Batten demanded an inquiry into the allegations. He told the European Parliament that Litvinenko had been warned by FSB deputy chief General Anatoly Trofimov that there were numerous former KGB agents among Italian politicians, and that "Romano Prodi is our man in Italy".