Philip Bushill-Matthews (15 January 1943 – 10 December 2023) was a British politician who was Conservative Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands.
Dramatic Society (OUDS) in succession to Michael York, with whom he acted in Braham Murray's touring productions of A Man for All Seasons and Ionesco's Rhinoceros.
Unhappy about the general lack of business experience among politicians from all parties he decided to enter politics himself and was elected to the European Parliament representing his home region of the West Midlands in 1999.
Meanwhile, fed up with the response from the Labour Government back home to the continued boycott of British beef by France for blatantly protectionist reasons, he joined ten other colleagues in a demonstration in Paris in autumn 1999.
Bushill-Matthews was appointed Conservative Spokesman for Employment & Social Affairs immediately following his first election as an MEP, and held this position for ten years.
He was instrumental in preserving the UK individual opt-out from the Working Time Directive and promoting Corporate Social Responsibility as voluntary.