He was educated at
Brentwood School, read
PPE at
St John's College, Oxford and later took a master's degree in War Studies from
King's College London writing
Tom Wintringham and the Socialist Way of War for the Institute of Historical Research in 1988, a paper which led to Wintringham's papers coming to King's, and formed the basis for much of Wintringham's biography as eventually written by
Hugh Purcell. A keen
cooperator, he served as Political Officer of the South East Co-op (Co-operative Wholesale Society) from 1987 to 1994. In 1994 he was elected
Labour MEP for
London South East. He served on the Agriculture and Rural Development committee. He was not re-elected in 1999 under the list system, and became Chief Executive of the Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL) which represents the vast majority of credit unions in Great Britain. Spiers was Chief Executive of
CPRE 2004 to 2017. His book, 'How to build houses and save the countryside', was published by Policy Press in March 2018. ==References==