About John
John is 48 and is married with two daughters aged twelve and nine. His interests include tennis, charity fundraising, walking and history.
After leaving Cambridge in 1982, John joined the Army and served in Berlin and Northern Ireland, and later with the United Nations in Cyprus. On leaving the Army as a captain in 1987, he became an Investment Manager in London, specialising in the charities sector, becoming a Director of Hendersons and Rothschild Asset Management.
John first engaged in local politics in Chelmsford, Essex in 1990 before moving to London where he became Treasurer of Streatham Conservative Association and Deputy Chairman of Governors at a local school. He was the Parliamentary candidate in Basildon in 1997 and was selected as the candidate for Billericay and District in 2000.
John's experience
John was elected as the Conservative MP for Billericay and District in 2001. He served on Parliament's Education Select Committee and was promoted to Shadow Health Minister in 2002. However, he resigned from this post in 2003 in order to vote against the war in Iraq.
He was subsequently re-appointed as a Shadow Health Minister with responsibility for cancer services, nursing and midwifery, eye care services, patient representation, clinical negligence, and long-term conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, MS and Epilepsy.
In summer 2007, John moved from Health to join the Opposition Whips Office.
Campaigns
John is presently working on the following issues:
Tougher law and order policy - more police on the streets of Essex as part of a tougher law and order policy which should include more neighbourhood policing, a zero tolerance approach to crime, court sentences which fit the crime, and reform of our overcrowded prisons.
Defending the Green Belt - defence of the Green Belt and environment by: (1) ending Labour’s centralised house-building targets which are undemocratic and threaten to overwhelm already over-stretched public services; (2) stopping infill development which is too intense; and (3) combating illegal traveller sites.
Resolving the traveller issue - by pushing in Parliament for a twin-track approach: (1) obliging all councils to provide authorised sites where there is sufficient demand and for which an honest rent and council taxes can be charged; and (2) giving councils much stronger powers to immediately stop illegal development and to put right any damage caused.
Defending our civil liberties - defence of our civil liberties against an over-powerful state. John is against ID cards and the Government’s Religious Hatred laws. John is also against the Euro and the EU’s general centralist agenda, believing more powers should be returned to Britain.
Other campaigns - other issues John has campaigned for include: freeing small businesses from over-burdensome tax and regulation; a wide-ranging debate on the future of British policy in Iraq; higher state pensions linked to earnings; a controlled immigration policy and the humane return of failed asylum seekers; reduced waiting times by freeing the NHS from political interference; more choice of school places by making it easier for good schools to expand.
