David Lawrence Shaw (14 November 1950 – 23 August 2022) was a British politician who served as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP). He was the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Member for

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

from the 1987 general election until the 1997 election, when he lost the seat to

Gwyn Prosser Gwynfor Matthews Prosser (born 27 April 1943) is a British politician and engineer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dover from 1997 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he worked as a marine engineer and served on Dover District ...

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

. He was one of the first British Members of Parliament to use the

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to communicate.

Early life

Shaw was born on 14 November 1950. He was educated at the

King's College School King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London and ...

, Wimbledon and the

City of London Polytechnic London Guildhall University was a university in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2002, established when the City of London Polytechnic was awarded university status. On 1 August 2002, it merged with the University of North London to form Londo ...

Political career

Shaw contested the

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

, Greater Manchester, constituency at the 1979 general election, but was not elected. Shaw was embroiled in the

Pamella Bordes Pamela Chaudry Singh (born 1961), known for some years as Pamella Bordes, is an Indian photographer and former Femina Miss India, Miss India. Personal life Singh was born in New Delhi in 1961; her father, Major Mahinder Singh Kadian, was an of ...

scandal after providing her with a

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

security pass. Bordes was "his part-time unpaid researcher" from the end of December 1988 until 21 February 1989, working on the

Net Book Agreement The Net Book Agreement (NBA) was a fixed book price agreement in the United Kingdom and Ireland between The Publishers Association and booksellers which set the prices at which books were to be sold to the public. The agreement was concerned sole ...

. In January 1998 the then Prime Minister

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

described Shaw who had lost his seat nine months before as being " othnasty and ineffectual in equal quantities." At the 2001 general election he stood in the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

constituency of

Kingston and Surbiton Kingston and Surbiton () is a constituency created in 1997 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Ed Davey, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats. Kingston and Surbiton has been considered a marginal seat, as wel ...

against the

Liberal Democrat Several political party, political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democracy, liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties ...

Ed Davey Sir Edward Jonathan Davey (born 25 December 1965) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 t ...

, who was defending a majority of just 56 from the election four years earlier. In the event, Davey held the seat with a majority increased by over 15,000.

Political positions

*Chairman,

Bow Group The Bow Group is a UK-based think tank promoting conservative opinion. Founded in 1951, it is the oldest group of its kind, counting many senior Conservative Party MPs and peers among its members. It represents a forum for political debate with i ...

, 1983–84 *Founder, Transatlantic Conference, 1982 *Member, Social Security Select Committee, 1991–97 *Joint Chairman, All Party Committee on Dolphins, 1989–97 *Chairman, Conservative Backbench Smaller Businesses Committee, 1990–97 (Secretary, 1987–90) *Vice Chairman, Conservative Backbench Finance Committee, 1991–97 (Hon. Secretary, 1990–91) *Vice-Chairman, Kingston and Malden Conservative Association, 1979–86

Professional career

Shaw was a chartered accountant and the founder, Chairman and Director, Sabrelance Ltd, corporate finance advisers, from 1983.

Positions held

*FCA 1974 *Coopers & Lybrand, 1971–79 *County Bank, 1979–83 *Chairman: RRI PLC, 1994–2000 *2020 Strategy Ltd, 1997– *Deputy Chairman, The Adscene Group PLC, 1986–99 *Director, Nettec plc, 2003–05 *Member, Political, Communications and Marketing Committee *Quoted Cos Alliance (formerly City Group for Smaller Quoted Companies), 1997– *Member, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames Council, 1974–78 *Member, Board of Senior Advisors, Center for Global Economic Growth, Washington DC, 2005– *Founder and Director, David Shaw Charitable Trust, 1994– *Vice-President, Institute of Patentees and Inventors, 1996–

Personal life and death

Shaw married Dr Lesley Brown in 1986. They had one son, born in September 1989 and one daughter, Annabel who addressed the

Conservative Party Conference The Conservative Party Conference (CPC) is a four-day national conference event held by the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. It takes place every year around October during the British party conference season, when the House of Commons is ...

in 2009 at just 15 years of age. He died after a long illness on 23 August 2022, at the age of 71.

References

External links

*
David Shaw's website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, David 1950 births 2022 deaths People educated at King's College School, London Alumni of London Guildhall University Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dover