Peter Whittle

Now serving as an Independent Member of the London Assembly and Leader of the Assembly's Brexit Alliance Group, Whittle is currently Chairman of the London Assembly's Audit Panel as well as a Member of its Police & Crime Committee, GLA Oversight Committee and Confirmation Hearings Committee. The Brexit Alliance Group is not a registered political party, but a grouping to satisfy GLA requirements - it consists of Whittle and David Kurten, who continued to be a member of UKIP until January 2020.

In 2019 Whittle launched a weekly YouTube interview programme called So What You're Saying Is..., which he also hosts. The show aims to redress the balance which it claims is not provided by the mainstream media and is named after a phrase repeatedly uttered by Cathy Newman of Britain's Channel 4 News during a combative interview with the Canadian psychologist and professor of psychology Jordan Peterson. The interview, regarded by many commentators as symbolic of a wider problem amongst the mainstream media, became a viral phenomenon, with critics alleging Newman's preconceptions led her to misinterpret Peterson and alter his statements.

Whittle resigned as UKIP's London spokesman on 22 January 2018, following Henry Bolton's refusal to stand down following a vote of no confidence in his leadership by UKIP's National Executive Committee.

In December 2018, Whittle resigned from UKIP in protest at Gerard Batten's leadership.

Whittle has been a London Assembly Member (AM) since the Assembly elections of May 2016 and currently serves as Chairman of the Audit Panel. He has been Leader of the London Assembly's Brexit Alliance Group since December 2018, when he resigned from the UK Independence Party (of which he had previously been Assembly Leader) in protest at Gerard Batten's leadership.

Whittle was UKIP's candidate for the 2016 London mayoral election, which was held at the same time as the Assembly elections. He served as the party's Deputy Leader between November 2016 and October 2017 and was a prominent, if unsuccessful, candidate in the 2017 UKIP leadership campaign.

On 12 October 2016, Whittle announced his intention to stand for UKIP leader following the resignation of Diane James after just 18 days; however, on reflection, he decided to stand for the position of deputy leader instead and was duly successful in this candidature. On 28 November 2016, it was announced that Whittle was the new Deputy Leader of UKIP, replacing Paul Nuttall, then newly appointed as Party Leader. Following the election of Henry Bolton as leader of UKIP in October 2017, Whittle left the role of deputy leader and was appointed UKIP spokesman for London affairs. He resigned as London spokesman on 22 January 2018, following Bolton's refusal to stand down after a vote of no confidence in his leadership by UKIP's National Executive Committee.

In September 2015, Whittle was selected as the UKIP candidate for Mayor of London, as well as topping the party list for election to the Greater London Assembly. Openly gay, Whittle was the only LGBT candidate selected by any of the parties for the 2016 Mayoral election.

Whittle became UKIP's cultural spokesman in 2013 and stood for Eltham at the 2015 general election, coming third with 15% of the vote, a vote share surpassing both the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party.

In 2006 Whittle founded the New Culture Forum, a think tank whose mission is described as "challenging the cultural orthodoxies dominant in the media, academia, education, and British culture in its widest sense." Speakers at NCF events, including for its annual keynote Smith Lecture, have included Martin Amis, Dame Vivien Westwood, Jeremy Hunt MP, Michael Gove MP, Nigel Farage MEP, Justin Webb, Sir Anthony Seldon, Petroc Trelawny, Ed Vaizey MP, Melanie Philips, Brendan O'Neil and Owen Jones. Writers for the New Culture Forum have included Douglas Murray, Julie Bindel, Ed West, and Dennis Sewell.

As a journalist he was an arts and film critic for national and international publications including The Times, The Sunday Times and the Los Angeles Times, as well as a columnist for Standpoint magazine (for which he wrote "Whittle's London"). Starting with regular contributions as a cultural commentator and critic on BBC Two's Newsnight Review (later The Review Show) in the 2000s, Whittle has made extensive appearances on the broadcast media, most notably on programmes such as Question Time and The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, and Start The Week, Any Questions and The Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4.

Peter Robin Whittle AM (born 6 January 1961) is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster. He is the founder and Director of The New Culture Forum think-tank and host of So What You're Saying Is..., a weekly cultural and political interview show on YouTube.

Whittle was born in the General Lying-in Hospital in Waterloo, London, one of Great Britain's first maternity hospitals. Shortly after his birth Whittle's family moved across South East London, from Peckham to Shooter's Hill. Whittle attended the John Roan School, a grammar school for boys founded in 1677, making it one of the oldest state schools in the country. After John Roan, Whittle studied at Orpington College and the University of Kent (BA History and Politics). Between 1991 and 2003 he worked as a TV producer and director of arts and factual programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, including a prolonged stint at the long-running TV arts series The South Bank Show, as well as USA Network and Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States of America, living for five years in Los Angeles.