Robert Kilroy-Silk

Robert Michael Kilroy-Silk (born 19 May 1942) is an English politician, who served as an independent Member of the European Parliament. He previously had a career as a television presenter and was best known for his daytime talk show, Kilroy. He has been a university lecturer and Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP). He stood successfully for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the 2004 election to the European Parliament.

He left them in 2005 to found a new party which he called Veritas; he resigned as its leader later the same year.

Early life

Robert Michael Silk was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of William Silk, a Royal Navy leading stoker, and his wife Minnie Rose (née Rooke). William Silk was lost at sea, age 22, whilst serving on HMS Charybdis, which was torpedoed by German E-Boats on 23 October 1943. His son was 17 months old.

In 1946 Robert's mother Rose remarried, to family friend John Francis Kilroy, a car worker at the Rootes plant in Warwickshire. He adopted the young boy and gave him the first part of his surname; Robert became known as Kilroy-Silk.