Rupert Matthews: ghost-chaser becomes Britain’s last ever MEP There is no doubting the versatility of Rupert Matthews, the Conservative politician likely to be Britain’s last ever MEP. In […]

There is no doubting the versatility of Rupert Matthews, the Conservative politician likely to be Britain’s last ever MEP.

In his career as an author he has written more than 300 books, with titles as wide-ranging as “Teashop and Pub Drives in Sussex”, “Alexander the Great at the Battle of Granicus” and “You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Chicago Gangster”.

But his main speciality? Ghosts.

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His website now focuses mostly on his history writing, but in amongst the extensive bibliography lurk dozens of books on the paranormal, the supernatural and the unexplained. He has even taught an online course on the matter.

‘Presenting the evidence’

Some of Matthews’ paranormal books: Paranormal Surrey UFOs: A History of Alien Activity from Sightings to Abductions to Global Threat Unexplained Ghosts and Spirits Alien Encounters : True-Life Stories of Aliens, UFOs and Other Extra-Terrestrial Phenomena

He has claimed his task is simply “presenting the evidence” rather than pushing a personal belief in UFOs.

Mr Matthews, a long-time Tory activist, will replace Andrew Lewer in Brussels after the MEP for the East Midlands became MP for Northampton South at the general election last month.

With Britain now well under two years away from leaving the European Union and another full set of election not due until 2019, that means he is likely to be the last person sent from Britain to the EU’s assembly.

By the end of March 2019, Britain’s 73 MEPs – including 24 Ukip members, by far their most powerful bloc – will be out of a job.

Mr Matthews was next on the party list for the Conservatives at the last European election, meaning he has been co-opted to fill Mr Lewer’s seat in Brussels.

He could have been in the European Parliament much longer – although not much more frequently, given UK MEPs’ poor average attendance rate – if the Tories had not placed an obstacle in front of him in 2011.

The Great British eccentric

Other books by Matthews The World’s Weirdest Dinosaurs The Sieges of Carlisle 1645/6 How They Live: Sharks Elvis: The King of Rock and Roll Board Game Mania

Mr Matthews was expected to replace Roger Helmer, then a Tory representative, when he resigned, but the Conservatives insisted on an additional interview process for the ghost expert.

The seat was never vacated. In his anger, Mr Helmer stayed in place and defected to Ukip.

“He makes a thing of being the great British eccentric,” he told the Times in defence of Mr Matthews.

‘I go to the ballet, he dresses up in medieval armour. Good luck to him.’

Golliwog picture

The Tory Party also took issue in 2011 with a picture of a golliwog printed on the front of one of Mr Matthews’ books about “political correctness”.

He was also teaching an online course in the paranormal at the International Metaphysical University, which distributed “master’s” degrees in exchange for $400 in fees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSmlzOnb4Z4

He claims to be a member of the Society for Psychical Research, “the world’s leading society for the academic investigation of paranormal phenomena”.

His assertion in the introductory video that “there is a very active ghost in Westminster Abbey” appears to undermine his claim that he does not necessarily believe, himself, in supernatural forces.

But despite this, the qualms of the party appear to have been swept aside, with his path at last clear.

Panzers in London

Mr Matthews’ 20 months in Brussels will be dominated by Brexit, but that doesn’t appear to be a problem to the man who helped run Better Off Out, a less well known Brexit campaign led by Lord Tebbit.

He is as eurosceptic as they come, even in a British class of MEPs not noted for their desire to work with Europe – and once even suggested that the Lisbon Treaty could allow the EU to invade Britain.

Lib Dem MP Tom Brake, a supporter of Open Britain, told the Times: “When we desperately need to build goodwill in the EU, you’ve got to question the wisdom of appointing an MEP who has claimed the European Commission is prepared to send a Panzer tank division to London to stop us leaving.”