David Kurten facts for kids

Quick facts for kids David Kurten
Kurten in 2016
Leader of the Heritage Party
Incumbent
Assumed office September 2020
Member of the London Assembly for Londonwide
In office 6 May 2016 – 6 May 2021
Preceded by	Stephen Knight
Succeeded by	Emma Best
UKIP portfolios
2016–2018	Education
Personal details
Born	(1971-03-22) 22 March 1971 (age 54) Littlehampton, Sussex, England
Political party	Heritage Party (since September 2020)
Other political affiliations	Brexit Alliance (2018–2021) UK Independence Party (2012–2020)
Alma mater	University of St Andrews University of Bath University of Southampton
Occupation	Politician
Website	https://www.davidkurten.net/

David Michael Kurten (born 22 March 1971) is a British politician who has served as leader of the Heritage Party since September 2020. He was previously a member of the London Assembly (AM) for Londonwide from 2016 to 2021. Elected as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate, he subsequently left the party in January 2020. He is the registered leader of the Heritage Party and characterises himself as a social conservative.

Early life and career

David Michael Kurten was born in Littlehampton in Sussex on 22 March 1971 to parents Reginald Kurten and Patricia Kurten. The son of a British mother and Jamaican father, Kurten was raised by his single mother and his maternal grandparents in Sussex. He studied chemistry at the University of St Andrews, graduating BSc in 1993, before completing a PGCE at the University of Bath in 1995 and graduating MRes in chemistry at the University of Southampton in 1998.

Between 1995 and 2016 he taught chemistry at schools in the UK, Botswana, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bermuda, and the United States.

Political career

UK Independence Party

At the 2015 general election, Kurten stood for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Camberwell and Peckham, coming fifth with 4.7% of the vote. He was second in the UKIP London-wide list in the 2016 London Assembly election and was elected to the London Assembly alongside Peter Whittle, with the party getting 171,069 votes. In October 2016, Kurten announced his intention to stand for UKIP leader following the resignation of Diane James after just 18 days. However, he withdrew from the contest and endorsed Paul Nuttall. Following the contest, Nuttall appointed Kurten as the party's education spokesperson on 30 November 2016.

At the 2017 general election Kurten stood in the Essex constituency of Castle Point, winning 5.3% of the vote, which was sufficient for him to retain his deposit. Kurten ran in the 2017 UKIP leadership election, where he came third, with Henry Bolton elected as leader. Kurten stepped down from the UKIP frontbench on 22 January 2018 in protest at Bolton's refusal to stand down as leader after receiving a vote of no confidence from the party's national executive committee the previous day. He returned after Gerard Batten became leader on 14 April.

In the May 2018 local elections, Kurten unsuccessfully contested his local Sidcup ward in the London Borough of Bexley. He then stood as UKIP's candidate in the Lewisham East by-election on 14 June 2018, getting 1.7% of the vote. This by-election was mired in controversy, with left-wing activists disrupting a hustings event and abusing Kurten as he arrived; the meeting was stopped by police as Kurten began his speech. In December 2018, Kurten again resigned from the UKIP frontbench, this time on account of the anti-Islam direction of UKIP under the party's then-leader Gerard Batten, most significantly Batten's appointment of activist Tommy Robinson as an advisor on grooming gangs. On 12 December 2018, following Peter Whittle's departure from UKIP, he and Kurten disbanded the UKIP grouping on the London Assembly and formed the Brexit Alliance group, though Kurten remained a member of UKIP.

In December 2019, Kurten stood as the UKIP candidate in the constituency of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton in the 2019 general election after the new Brexit Party announced that it would not be contesting seats won by the Conservative Party at the 2017 general election. His vote share was 1.7%.

Heritage Party

In the London Assembly, he confronted Sadiq Khan on what he called "gender ideology" by promoting "traditional family values", and as a Brexit campaigner he opposed Khan's support for the EU and call for a second referendum.

In January 2020, Kurten announced he would run as an independent candidate in the upcoming London mayoral and London Assembly elections (then scheduled for May 2020, but both elections were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Kurten founded a new political party in 2020: the Heritage Party was registered with the Electoral Commission that October. Kurten finished 15th with 11,025 votes in the mayoral election, while his party finished 13th on the London-wide list with 13,534 votes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurten spread contested COVID-19 claims by stating that the disease was no worse than the flu. In December 2020, Kurten rejected a COVID-19 vaccine, for which he was denounced by the Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, who saw this as irresponsible for an elected politician. Kurten has opposed lockdowns implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he has attended protests against UK government policies.

The Heritage Party got 1.6% of the vote, coming fourth, in the 2021 Hartlepool by-election with 468 votes. In the 2021 London elections, Kurten received 0.4% of the vote in the mayoral election, coming fifteenth, while the Heritage party list, headed by Kurten, received 0.5% in the Assembly vote. He was, thus, not re-elected.

Kurten contested the December 2021 Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election, finishing ninth, with 116 votes (0.5%).

At the 2023 Arun District Council election, he came last in the Aldwick West ward with 148 votes.

At the 2024 general election, Kurten ran again in Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, coming last with 708 votes (1.5%).

Electoral performance

House of Commons

UKIP

Heritage Party

General election 2024: Bognor Regis and Littlehampton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alison Griffiths	15,678	32.8	–29.4
	Labour	Clare Walsh	13,913	29.1	+10.1
	Reform UK	Sandra Daniells	10,262	21.5	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Henry Jones	5,081	10.6	–2.7
	Green	Carol Birch	2,185	4.6	+1.3
	Heritage	David Kurten	708	1.5	N/A
Majority			1,765	3.7	–39.5
Turnout			47,827	61.7	–6.5
Registered electors			77,565
	Conservative hold		Swing	19.8

London elections

2021 London Assembly election
List		Candidates	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Elly Baker (98,661), Sakina Sheikh (89,692), Murad Qureshi (82,217), Emine Ibrahim, Faduma Hassan, Sophie Charman-Blower, Bob Littlewood, Miriam Mirwitch, Shahina Jaffer, Taranjit Chana, James Beckles	986,609	38.1%	2.2%
	Conservative	Shaun Bailey† (132,514), Andrew Boff (113,583), Susan Hall (99,385), Emma Best (88,342), Selina Seesunkur (79,508), Toby Williams, Ahmereen Reza, Timothy Briggs, Simon Hoar, John Riley, Julian Gallant, George Currie	795,081	30.7%	1.5%
	Green	Siân Berry† (305,452), Caroline Russell (152,726), Zack Polanski (101,817), Benali Hamdache (76,363), Shahrar Ali, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, Ben Fletcher, Hannah Graham, Peter Underwood, Kirsten De Keyser, Jarelle Francis	305,452	11.8%	3.8%
	Liberal Democrats	Caroline Pidgeon (189,522), Hina Bokhari (94,761), Robert Blackie (63,174), Chris Maines, Joyce Onstad, Irina von Wiese, Hussain Khan, Michael Bukola, Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, Adetokunbo Fatukasi, Charley Hasted	189,522	7.3%	1.0%
	Women's Equality	Harini Iyengar, Jacueline Dean, Tabitha Morton, Rebecca Manson-Jones, Nikki Uppal, Pamela Ritchie, Leila Fazal, Sarabajaya Kumar, Guilene Marcor, Sellisha Lockyer, Korina Holmes, Maureen Obi-Ezekpazu, Georgina Ladbury	55,684	2.2%	1.3%
	Rejoin EU	Richard Hewison†, Deborah Iliffe, Charlotte Blake, John Stevens, Brendan Donnelly, Rory Fitzgerald, Benrd Rendic, Philipp Gnatzy, Karol Bobal, Raj Kumar, Javern Pond	49,389	1.9%	New
	Animal Welfare	Vanessa Hudson†, Sam Morland, Alex Bourke, Femy Amin, Mark Scott, Julian Weisman	44,667	1.7%	0.7%
	CPA	Maureen Maud Marin, Helen Spiby-Vann, Ashley Keith Dickenson, Carol Valinejad, Eunice Oruyinka Ade Odesanmi, Katherine Susan Hortense, Desmond Coke, Donald Akhigbe	28,878	1.1%	0.1%
	UKIP	Peter Gammons†, Elizabeth Jones, Julie Carter, Stuart Freeman, Marjan Keqaj, Kakala Nyembwe, Ziz Kakoulakis, Geoffrey Courtenay, Anil Bhatti, Amir Latif, Simon Harman	27,114	1.0%	5.5%
	Reform UK	Richard Tice, David Bull, Robert Poll, Dominique Day, Michael Pastor, Saradhi Rajan, Ian Price, Edward Apostolides, Mark Simpson, Michael Anthony, John Cronin	25,009	1.0%	New
	London Real Party	Brian Rose†, Paul Frost, Kim Murray, Julian Bailes	18,395	0.7%	New
	Let London Live	Piers Corbyn†, Heiko Khoo, Sylvia Da Barca, Julia Stephenson, Renos Samson	15,755	0.6%	New
	Heritage	David Kurten†, Sean Finch, Lewis Glyn, Zachary Stiling, Barbara Ray, Dominic Stockford	13,534	0.5%	New
	TUSC	Nancy Taaffe, April Ashley, Lewis Baker, Deji Olayinka, Andrew Walker, Thea Everett, Lawanya Ramajayam, Jack Jeffery, Marvin Hay, Len Hockey, Lois Austin, Bob Law, Ferdy Lyons, Rachel Lyon, Naomi Bryan, Pete Mason, Angharad Hillier, Hugo Pierre, Brian Debus, Mira Glavardanov, Niall Mulholland, John Viner, Wally Kennedy, Paul Kershaw, Paul Scott	9,004	0.3%	New
	Communist	Robin Talbot, Judith Cazorla Rodenas, Philip Wedgwood Brand, Akira Allman, Lorraine Douglas, Stewart McGill, Lucian Branescu-Mihaila, Anita Halpin, Hannah Sawtwell	8,787	0.3%	New
	SDP	Eric Siva-Jothy, Stephen Gardner, Matthew Beresford, Simon Marshall, Brilant Krasniqi, Seth Liebowitz, Tricia Bracher, Rosamund Hubley	7,782	0.3%	New
	Londependence	Bella Roberts, Tom Foster, Daniel Jacobs, John Halnan	5,746	0.2%	New
	National Liberal	Upkar Rai, Arunasalam Rajalingam, Faisal Maramazi, Araz Yurdseven, Ponniah Yogaraja	2,860	0.1%	New