Brian Mawhinney, Baron Mawhinney

The Right Honourable The Lord Mawhinney PC
Shadow Home Secretary
In office 11 June 1997 – 11 April 1998
Leader	William Hague
Preceded by	Jack Straw
Succeeded by	Norman Fowler
Chairman of the Conservative Party
In office 5 July 1995 – 2 May 1997
Leader	John Major
Preceded by	Jeremy Hanley
Succeeded by	Cecil Parkinson
Minister without Portfolio
In office 5 July 1995 – 2 May 1997
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Jeremy Hanley
Succeeded by	Peter Mandelson
Secretary of State for Transport
In office 20 July 1994 – 5 July 1995
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	John MacGregor
Succeeded by	George Young
Member of Parliament for Peterborough
In office 3 May 1979 – 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Michael Ward
Succeeded by	Helen Clark
Member of Parliament for North West Cambridgeshire
In office 1 May 1997 – 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Succeeded by	Shailesh Vara
Personal details
Born	26 July 1940 (1940-07-26) Belfast, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	Queen's University of Belfast Royal Free Hospital
Religion	Christianity

Brian Stanley Mawhinney, Baron Mawhinney PC (born 26 July 1940) is a British Conservative Party politician. He was a member of the Cabinet from 1994 until 1997 and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 until 2005.

Early life

Mawhinney was born in 1940 in Belfast and was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He studied physics at Queen's University of Belfast, gaining an upper second class degree in 1963 and obtained a Ph.D. in radiation physics at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He worked as assistant professor of radiation research at the University of Iowa from 1968–70 and then returned to the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine as a lecturer from 1970–84.

Political career

Mawhinney was Member of Parliament for Peterborough from 1979 to 1997 and Member of Parliament for North West Cambridgeshire from 1997 to 2005. Mawhinney campaigned prolifically against pornography. In 1979 one of his bills were in the Private Members’ Bills ballot, which attempted to ban indecent displays outside cinemas, sex shops and strip clubs. In early 1980, he called for Keith Joseph to launch an inquiry into certain pages on the Post Office’s Prestel viewdata service, calling it a “buyers guide to dirty books”. In the early 1980s he was secretary of the Conservative backbench Northern Ireland committee, during which time he showed wariness of the Rev Ian Paisley, warning his supporters that the British commitment to Ulster could be damaged by “protestant ingratitude”.

He was PPS to John Wakeham from 1982 to 1983 and PPS to Tom King from 1984 to 1986. He became a junior minister at the Northern Ireland Office in 1986, and then became Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office in 1990. In 1992, he became Minister of State at the Department of Health until 1994 when he entered the cabinet as Secretary of State for Transport. He served as Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio for two years from 1995 until the 1997 election. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the dissolution honours list in 1997. He served as Shadow Home Secretary and spokesman for home, constitutional and legal affairs for a year under William Hague before returning to the back benches in June 1998. He stepped down from the House of Commons in May 2005. On 13 May 2005 it was announced that he would be created a life peer, and on 24 June he was created Baron Mawhinney, of Peterborough, in the County of Cambridgeshire.

Outside politics

In 2003, he was appointed Chairman of The Football League, and in 2004 oversaw a re-organisation of the league structure, renaming the former Division One as the Football League Championship. Deeply religious, Mawhinney is a leading member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and was a member of the General Synod for five years.

See also

• List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords
• List of Northern Ireland members of the Privy Council

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Brian Mawhinney

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Michael Ward	Member of Parliament for Peterborough 1979–1997	Succeeded by Helen Clark
New constituency	Member of Parliament for North West Cambridgeshire 1997–2005	Succeeded by Shailesh Vara
Political offices
Preceded by John MacGregor	Secretary of State for Transport 1994–1995	Succeeded by George Young
Preceded by Jeremy Hanley	Minister without Portfolio 1995–1997	Succeeded by Peter Mandelson
Preceded by Jack Straw	Shadow Home Secretary 1997–1998	Succeeded by Norman Fowler
Party political offices
Preceded by Jeremy Hanley	Chairman of the Conservative Party 1995–1997	Succeeded by Cecil Parkinson