John Stanley (Tonbridge and Malling MP)

For other people named John Stanley, see John Stanley (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable Sir John Stanley
Minister of State for Northern Ireland
In office 13 June 1987 – 25 July 1988
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Nicholas Scott
Succeeded by	Ian Stewart
Minister of State for the Armed Forces
In office 13 June 1983 – 13 June 1987
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Peter Blaker
Succeeded by	Ian Stewart
Member of Parliament for Tonbridge and Malling
In office 28 February 1974 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Succeeded by	Tom Tugendhat
Personal details
Born	(1942-01-19) 19 January 1942 Marylebone, London, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Susan Giles
Alma mater	Lincoln College, Oxford

Sir John Paul Stanley (born 19 January 1942) is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tonbridge and Malling from 1974 to 2015.

Education

Repton School

Stanley was educated at two independent schools: at Copthorne Preparatory School near Crawley in West Sussex and Repton School in the village of Repton in Derbyshire, followed by Lincoln College at the University of Oxford, where he read Modern History. He also studied at Syracuse University.

Early career

Stanley was at the Institute for Strategic Studies from 1968 to 1969. He worked for Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp Ltd (RTZ) from 1969 to 1979.

Parliamentary career

Stanley contested the Newton seat in 1970. He was first elected to Parliament at the February 1974 election, prior to which he had worked for the Conservative Research Department as an advisor on housing policy. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Thatcher from 1976 to 1979, during her time as Leader of the Opposition.

He was made Minister of State with responsibility for housing at the Department of the Environment following the Conservative victory at the 1979 general election. Four years later he was moved to become Minister of State for the Armed Forces in the Ministry of Defence. Following the 1987 general election Stanley was moved to the Northern Ireland Office, once again as Minister of State, but left the government front bench in 1988 and has remained on the back benches since.

He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1984 and is mainly interested in defence and foreign policy, having sat on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee since 1992. He was knighted in 1988.

He was re-adopted as the Conservative party candidate for his constituency in 2008 for the 2010 general election, when he was 68 years old.

In March 2012, Stanley announced that he would stand down at the next general election.

In early 2014, The Independent reported that Stanley had received fees worth thousands of pounds for consultancy work for one of the big City investors who were granted priority access to shares in Royal Mail plc, which the Coalition government had decided to privatise.

Personal life

He married Susan Giles on 21 December 1968 in the City of London, they are now divorced. They have a son and daughter.

External links

• Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Sir John Stanley MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com – John Stanley MP
• Tonbridge and Malling Conservatives
• The Public Whip – John Stanley MP voting record
• BBC News – John Stanley MP profile 10 February 2005
• Appearances on C-SPAN