Richard Howitt

In September 2016, Howitt announced his resignation from the European Parliament to become chief executive of the International Integrated Reporting Council. The Labour candidate next on the party list from the 2014 European Elections, Alex Mayer, replaced him as MEP.

Howitt helped to negotiate a £22 million European Union fund to help finance food banks in the UK, but in 2013 the UK government refused to accept the funds. Howitt stated:

Howitt was elected as a MEP to the European Parliament, representing the Essex South constituency, and served for the East of England constituency from 1999 to 2016.

Howitt was a member of the Labour Party's National Policy Forum between 1994 and 2016. He supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.

Howitt served as a councillor on Harlow District Council from 1983 to 1995, including three years as Leader of the council. Here he spearheaded some groundbreaking work assessing local government's environmental impact. He was the Labour Party candidate in Billericay in the 1987 general election.

Howitt was born in Reading, Berkshire. He was brought up in a single-parent family, in a council house, and went to a comprehensive school. He graduated with a BA degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford in 1982 and has a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies from the University of Hertfordshire.

Richard Stuart Howitt (born 5 April 1961) is a former British Labour Party politician, and a former Chief Executive Officer of the International Integrated Reporting Council. For five years prior to becoming CEO of the IIRC, he acted as a voluntary IIRC Ambassador, promoting Integrated Reporting within the policy and business communities. He took over from the previous CEO Paul Druckman. He was Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for 22 years between 1994 and 2016.