Alex Phillips (TV presenter)
Alexandra Phillips | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 26, 1983 Gloucester, England |
| Occupation(s) | Broadcaster, journalist, politician (former) |
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Known for | Brexit Party MEP for South East England (2019–2020), media chief at UKIP, presenter on GB News and Talk |
Alexandra Lesley Phillips (born 26 December 1983) is a British broadcaster, journalist, and ex-politician.
From 2019 until 2020, Phillips represented the South East England region as a Brexit Party member of the European Parliament (MEP), positioned second on the party list just after leader Nigel Farage. In February 2023, she became affiliated with Reform UK.
She held the role of media chief at the UK Independence Party (UKIP) until September 2016. Between June 2021 and September 2022, Phillips was a presenter on GB News, and in July 2023, she joined Talk.
Early life and career
Phillips was born in Gloucester and attended the grammar schools Denmark Road High School and Sir Thomas Rich's School. She pursued studies in English literature and philosophy at St. Mary's College, Durham University, followed by broadcast journalism at Cardiff University.
While reporting as a student journalist on the 2007 National Assembly for Wales election, Phillips created a documentary about UKIP that influenced her decision to join the party. She was attracted by then-leader Nigel Farage and aligned with UKIP’s views on expanding grammar schools, supporting fracking, and Euroscepticism. Prior to her involvement with UKIP, she worked as a local journalist at ITV and BBC Wales.
Political career
Phillips spent three years as UKIP's head of media. After casting her vote for Brexit during the 2016 EU referendum, she departed from UKIP around the same time as Nigel Farage and joined the Conservative Party in September 2016 following Theresa May’s rise to leadership. She continued providing media advice to former UKIP MEP Nathan Gill, who had become an independent member of the Welsh Assembly. Phillips attributed her party change to her endorsement of May’s policies on Brexit, grammar schools, and fracking, alongside dissatisfaction with internal disputes within UKIP.
In May 2019, Phillips was chosen as the Brexit Party’s candidate for South East England in the European Parliament elections. Notably, another candidate named Alexandra Phillips from the Green Party also stood in this constituency; both were successfully elected. Shortly thereafter, she appeared on BBC’s Question Time. In July 2019, Phillips disclosed her involvement with SCL Group—the parent company of Cambridge Analytica—during Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s successful 2017 re-election campaign, clarifying that her contributions were subcontracted through SCL. Cambridge Analytica was a political consultancy firm that ceased operations in 2018 following a significant data scandal involving Facebook user information. Within the European Parliament, Phillips served on the Committee on Development and participated in the delegation responsible for relations with South Africa.
On 2 August 2019, Phillips was announced as the Brexit Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Southampton Itchen. However, by November 2019, the Brexit Party opted not to compete against sitting Conservative MPs. Subsequently, Phillips declared she would abstain from voting in the general election due to feelings of disenchantment with her party. Her tenure as MEP concluded in January 2020 when the United Kingdom formally exited the EU. In February 2023, she joined Reform UK—the successor to the Brexit Party—as a policy adviser to its leader Richard Tice.
Broadcasting career
Phillips presented a bi-weekly programme on talkRADIO and regularly wrote for The Daily Telegraph. Between June and August 2021, she co-hosted an afternoon show on GB News alongside Simon McCoy. Following McCoy's transition to the breakfast slot, Phillips introduced her own afternoon broadcast, titled The Afternoon Agenda, in August 2021. Her tenure at GB News concluded in September 2022 after her show was discontinued. In July 2023, Phillips became part of the team at Talk.