Peter Bone

Peter Bone MP
Member of Parliament for Wellingborough
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Paul Stinchcombe
Majority	11,787 (22.8%)
Personal details
Born	19 October 1952 (1952-10-19) Billericay, Essex, England
Nationality	English
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Jeanette Bone
Children	Alexander, Helen, Thomas
Residence	United Kingdom
Profession	Accountant
Religion	Church of England

Peter William Bone (born 19 October 1952) is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Wellingborough and Rushden.

Personal life

Bone was born in 1952 in Billericay and was educated at Westcliff-on-Sea High School for Boys. Bone plays cricket as a left arm bowler for Cambridge Methodists Cricket Club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and Wellingborough Old Grammarians 3rd XI. He is also a keen follower of American Football and had a question read out live on Sky Sports in January 2012.

Career

He qualified as a chartered accountant and became the Finance Director of the Essex Electronics and Precision Engineering Group.^{[citation needed]} In 1982, he became press secretary to Paul Channon MP. Bone became the Chief Executive of the High Tech Electronics Company in 1983 until 1990.^{[citation needed]}

In 1995 Bone was described as Britain's "meanest boss" by the Daily Mirror when he defended paying a 17-year-old trainee 87p an hour. Bone is a former member of the Southern Airport Management Committee.

Political career

In 1977 he was elected as a councillor to Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, where he served for eight years until 1986.^{[citation needed]} He was elected as the Deputy Chairman of the Southend West Conservative Association in 1977 and continued in the position until 1984.

He contested the parliamentary seat of Islwyn in the South Wales industrial valleys at the 1992 general election against the Leader of the Opposition Neil Kinnock. Bone's 6,180 votes remains the best Conservative result in this Labour stronghold. He subsequently fought the European Parliament election in 1994 for Mid and West Wales coming third.

Bone was a member of the National Union Executive Committee between 1993 until 1996. He was chosen for the seemingly safe Conservative seat of Pudsey following the retirement of the veteran MP Giles Shaw at the 1997 general election but lost following a swing of 13.20% to the Labour's Paul Truswell, compared to a national swing of 10% from Conservative to Labour.

In the 2001 general election he fought the ultra marginal of Wellingborough, where the sitting Labour MP Paul Stinchcombe was holding on with a majority of just 187, having defeated the veteran Tory MP Peter Fry in 1997. Stinchcombe held on to his seat by 2,355, a swing of 2.1% to Labour compared with a national swing of 1.75 to the Conservatives. However, four years later, in the 2005 general election, Bone ousted Stinchcombe in Wellingborough with a majority of 687 votes, a swing of 2.9% compared to a national swing of 3.1% to the Conservatives. He made his maiden speech on 7 June 2005.

Bone is regularly one of the ten most active MPs in Parliament, in terms of Questions asked and other contributions. However the quality of those interventions was questioned in a 2006 Times article about the Theyworkforyou website. Bone was one of 3 new MPs specifically mentioned who boosted “their ratings on the internet by saying very little, very often.” Amongst his 109 “speeches” was one which ran to three short sentences in which he told fellow MPs that the sub-postmaster in Little Irchester had “the only business in the village”.

He is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group and in a 2007 report, he argued that the NHS "would not be out of place in Stalin's Russia". Bone has signed several Early Day Motions supporting Homoeopathy. He has voted to lower the abortion time limit to twelve weeks and voted against abolishing the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel. The abortion time limit vote failed and the blasphemy vote passed.

Bone is also a Member of the 1922 Committee and has been an Executive Member since 2007. He has campaigned on a number of issues including road traffic deaths, white slavery and underfunding of the NHS in Northamptonshire.

In March 2009 Bone was a key speaker opposing the use of the House of Commons by the UK Youth Parliament.^{[citation needed]}

Bone was a member of the Trade and Industry Select Committee from 2005–07. He has been a member of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments and the Commons Committee on Statutory Instruments since 2005 and the Health Select Committee from 2007 to 2010.

In 2010, having unsuccessfully contesting the Chairmanship for the Health Select Committee,^{[citation needed]} he was elected to Speakers Chairman Panel and the Backbench Business Committee. Further to this Bone has served as Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking, Treasurer of the APPG on Human Trafficking of Women and Children and APPG on Road Trafficking.

Bone is rated as one of the Conservatives' most rebellious MPs.

Private Member's Bills

Currently sponsoring European Convention on Human Rights (Withdrawal) Bill 2010–11: a Bill to make provision for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Convention on Human Rights.

Bone has previously sponsored a private member's bill to remove whips meaning MPs would be able to vote according to their own wishes rather than on party lines.

Expenses

Bone employs his wife, Jennie, as his executive secretary. In 2007–2008 he paid her "in the top bracket of up to £40,000" per annum and was also one of 32 MPs who claimed the maximum allowance of £4,800 a year for food. His expenses for 2007–2008 were ranked 115 out of 645 MPs.

His expenses for 2008–2009 were ranked 84th. He was not mentioned in the 2009 Legg Report and therefore was not one of the 343 MPs required to pay back any money.

External links

• Peter Bone MP biography at the site of the Conservative Party
• Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Peter Bone MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com – Peter Bone MP
• Wellingborough Conservatives
• The Public Whip – Peter Bone MP voting record
• BBC Politics page

News items

• Asbos in March 2007

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Paul Stinchcombe	Member of Parliament for Wellingborough 2005–present	Incumbent