Craig Mackinlay, the ex-Ukip Tory MP who lost his limbs to sepsis | Conservatives

Craig Mackinlay has had an eventful profession after swapping chartered accountancy for politics.

The 57-year-old was an unique member of the pro-Brexit UK Independence get together, grew to become its interim chief in 1999 and contested elections for the get together at a European and parliamentary degree.

He left to affix the Conservative get together in 2005 as a consequence of considerations concerning the path that Ukip was taking.

In 2007, he was elected as a councillor for River Ward in Chatham on Medway council, a unitary authority, after which re-elected in 2011.

Mackinlay, who has just lately spoken about having each his palms and toes amputated as a consequence of sepsis, was elected as a Conservative MP for South Thanet in 2015, narrowly defeating Ukip’s Nigel Farage and, fairly extra comfortably, the comic Al Murray.

He was a member of the exiting the EU choose committee, the work and pensions choose committee and the European scrutiny choose committee, and in addition served on the Joint BHS inquiry, which concerned questioning Philip Inexperienced and Dominic Chappell concerning the sale of the corporate in 2015.

In 2019, Mackinlay was acquitted by a jury of knowingly falsifying election bills for his 2015 marketing campaign towards Farage, who was the chief of Ukip.

After learning zoology and comparative physiology at Birmingham College, he certified as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Mackinlay later certified as a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. In response to his web site, he grew to become “one in all simply 1,500 certified ‘joint-hatters’ – the one MP with such qualification”.

The Tory MP, who was born in Chatham, served as a Justice of the Peace on the North Kent Bench and volunteered for the charity Tax Assist for Older Individuals. He’s married to Kati, a neighborhood pharmacist who’s initially from Hungary. The couple have a daughter, Olivia, who turns 5 on Thursday.