Agnew was born in Norwich, and educated at Gordonstoun School and the Royal Agricultural College.[1] During the 1970s he worked in Rhodesia as a soil conservation officer, as well as being a reserve in the Rhodesian Army. A long-time UKIP member, he is a Norfolk farmer who formerly represented Norfolk on the NFU Council.[2]
As UKIP's Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Agnew has described climate change science as "the global warming scam".[4] In the European Parliament in 2015, he stated that plants need carbon dioxide as food, so "if you succeed in decarbonising Europe, our crops will have no natural gas to grow from". Richard A. Betts of the Met Office described this as a misunderstanding, since cutting emissions did not mean reducing existing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.[5]
In April 2019, Agnew was appointed Deputy Leader of UKIP in the European Parliament following the resignation of Ray Finch, and it was reported that he spoke to the Springbok Club.[7]
Agnew lost his seat at the 2019 European Parliament election, when UKIP dropped to seventh position with 3.42% of the regional vote.
References
^'AGNEW, (John) Stuart', Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014
