James Arbuthnot: Difference between revisions

The Rt Hon. James Arbuthnot
The Rt Hon. James Arbuthnot
	File:JNA.jpg
Shadow Secretary of State for Trade; and Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
	In office; 6 November 2003 – 6 May 2005
Leader	Michael Howard
Preceded by	David Willetts (Pensions); Tim Yeo (Trade)
Succeeded by	David Willetts (Trade); Malcolm Rifkind (Pensions)
Personal details
Born	August 4, 1952 (age 71); Deal, Kent, UK
Political party	Conservative

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit Next edit →

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Revision as of 22:05, 1 December 2007

James Norwich Arbuthnot (born 4 August 1952) is a British politician. He is the British Member of Parliament for Hampshire North-East and is a member of the Conservative Party. Since the 2005 election he has served as the chairman of the influential Defence Committee and he is the current Parliamentary Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel.

Early Life

Arbuthnot was born in Deal, Kent, the son of Sir John Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet and Margaret Jean Duff. He was educated at Wellesley House School in Broadstairs, Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a law degree in 1974.^[1]

Arbuthnot was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1975 and became a practising barrister. An active member of the Chelsea Conservative Association, he was elected as a councillor to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 1978 and remained a councillor until his election as a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1987^[2]. In 1980 he became the vice-chairman of the Chelsea Conservative Association. He fought the futile seat of Cynon Valley in the Labour heartland in industrial South Wales valleys at the 1983 General Election and was unsurprisingly hammered by Ioan Evans. A year later in 1984, Evans died and Arbuthnot fought the by-election; he was again defeated by the Labour candidate Ann Clwyd.

At the 1987 General Election, Arbuthnot was chosen to fight the safe Conservative seat of Wanstead and Woodford as the sitting MP, Patrick Jenkin, was standing down. Wanstead and Woodford was the former constituency of Winston Churchill. Arbuthnot held the seat comfortably.

Member of Parliament

In 1988 he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Archie Hamilton at the Ministry of Defence, and in 1990 became the PPS to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Peter Lilley. He entered the John Major government after the 1992 General Election when he was made an Assistant Government Whip. He was promoted in 1994 as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security. The following year he was promoted to Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence. He remained in office until the collapse of the Major government.

Arbuthnot's seat of Wanstead and Woodford was abolished at the 1997 general election, and he found a new seat in the form of Hampshire North East. He was a member of William Hague's Shadow Cabinet as the Party's Chief Whip until the 2001 general election when he returned to the fold as a backbencher. He was made a Member of the Privy Council in 1998. Arbuthnot returned to the Shadow Cabinet under Michael Howard Shadow Trade Secretary in 2003 and stood down after the 2005 General Election. Since the election he has served as the chairman of the influential Defence Committee.

Personal Life

He is a direct descendant from King James I and is heir presumptive to the baronetcy currently held by his older brother, Sir William Arbuthnot. On 6 September 1984, he married Emma Broadbent, daughter of Michael Broadbent, Wine Director of Christie's, and has one son and three daughters.

References

^ "BBC".
^ "conservatives.com".

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1991, 172nd edition, Hurst Green, East Sussex, p.396. ISBN 0-905702-17-4
"thePeerage". Retrieved 2007-01-02.
"DodOnline". Retrieved 2007-01-02.

External links

Template:Incumbent succession box

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Patrick Jenkin	Member of Parliament for Wanstead and Woodford 1987–1997	Succeeded by (constituency abolished)

[1] "BBC".

[2] "conservatives.com".

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 ==Personal Life==
 He is a direct descendant from [[James I of England|King James I]] and is [[heir presumptive]] to the [[Arbuthnot Baronets|baronet]]cy currently held by his older brother, Sir William Arbuthnot. On [[6 September]] [[1984]], he married Emma Broadbent, daughter of [[Michael Broadbent]], Wine Director of Christie's, and has one son and three daughters.
-Byron Criddle of [[The Telegraph]] compared his monotonous voice to that of the [[Speaking_clock#United_Kingdom|speaking clock]] and whilst fellow Conservative MP [[Nicholas Soames]] described his smile as being ''"thin, weak"'' and ''"like winter sunshine upon a coffin lid"''.<ref name="Guardian profile">{{cite web | author= | title="James Arbuthnot - Profile" | work=[[The Guardian]]| url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-110,00.html| accessdate=30 November| accessyear=2007}}</ref><ref name="interesting thing">{{cite web | author=Rod Liddle | title="The most interesting thing about James Arbuthnot, MP" | work=[[The Guardian]]| url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/redbox/comment/0,,794210,00.html| accessdate=30 November| accessyear=2007}}</ref>
 ==References==