Gerard Batten was a member of the Anti-Federalist League 1992-1993 and a founder member of the UK Independence Party in 1993. He was the Party's European Election Organiser in 1994 and the first Party Secretary (1994-1997). He has served on the UKIP National Executive Committee at different times. He has fought eleven different election campaigns for the Party over the years.

He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for London in 2004 and re-elected in 2009 for another five year term. He has written extensively on such subjects as Immigration, the Cost of the European Union, and the European Arrest Warranty and the creation of a European system of criminal law.

In his first term he was a member of the European Parliament’s Security & Defence Committee, and since 2009 he has been a member of the Civil Liberties Justice & Home Affairs Committee.

From 2009 to 2014 he has served as the UKIP MEP’s Chief Whip.