David Wilshire (born 16 September 1943) is a British former politician. A member of the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
, he was the
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) for
Spelthorne
Spelthorne may refer to:
* Borough of Spelthorne, a local government district in the county of Surrey, England
* Spelthorne (UK Parliament constituency), Surrey constituency in the British House of Commons
* Spelthorne College, was a single-cam ...
in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
from
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...
to
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
. Wilshire was considered to be to the right of the party's mainstream.
Wilshire introduced
Section 28
Section 28 or Clause 28While going through Parliament, the amendment was constantly relabelled with a variety of clause numbers as other amendments were added to or deleted from the Bill, but by the final version of the Bill, which received R ...
legislation in 1988. In 2009 he was implicated in the
United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal
The United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal was a major political scandal that emerged in 2009, concerning expenses claims made by members of the British Parliament in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords over the previous year ...
.
On 14 October 2009 Wilshire admitted using parliamentary expenses to pay £105,000 over three years to Moorlands Research Services, a company he set up and owned with his partner Ann Palmer to run his office. While the relevant authorities had approved this, the following day, after a meeting with the Conservative Chief Whip, he announced that he would not be standing as a candidate at the
next general election.
Outside of Parliament
He was educated at
Kingswood School
(''In The Right Way Quickly'')
, established =
, closed =
, type = Independent
, religious_affiliation = Methodist
, president =
, head_label = Headmaste ...
,
Bath and
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
The college traces its origins back to 1869 and the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer academically excellent students of all ...
where he received an
MA in Geography in 1965. He was a councillor on
Wansdyke District Council from 1976 to 1987 and served as leader from 1981 to 1987. He was elected as councillor on
Avon County Council
Avon County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Avon in south west England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1974 and was abolished on 1 April 1996 at the same time as the county. The county council was based at Av ...
from 1977 to 1981. He also worked for Conservative MEPs from 1979 to 1985.
As well as building up his own group of small businesses and working as a personnel officer and a schoolteacher, he was a partner with Western Political Research Services (1979–2000); the co-director of Political Management Programme,
Brunel University
Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...
(1985–90) and became a partner of Moorlands Research Service in 2000.
David Wilshire is separated with one son. In 1982 his daughter died, aged 12, after choking at school. His main home is in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, where he lives with his partner Ann Palmer.
Parliamentary career
Section 28 and sexual orientation issues
Shortly after being elected as an MP in 1987, Wilshire saw a copy of the book ''
Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin'', about two gay men and their daughter, a copy of which was stocked in an
Inner London Education Authority
The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was an ad hoc local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. The authority was reconstituted as a directly elected body corpor ...
(ILEA) teachers' resource centre. Wilshire said of it: "the book portrays a child living with two men ...
ndclearly shows that as an acceptable family relationship".
As a result, with the support of Dame
Jill Knight
Joan Christabel Jill Knight, Baroness Knight of Collingtree, (; 9 July 1923 – 6 April 2022) was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston from 1966 to 1997. ...
, Wilshire introduced
Section 28
Section 28 or Clause 28While going through Parliament, the amendment was constantly relabelled with a variety of clause numbers as other amendments were added to or deleted from the Bill, but by the final version of the Bill, which received R ...
as an amendment to the Local Government Bill at the committee stage. The amendment made it illegal for local authorities to "promote homosexuality or ... promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality".
Section 28 became a major political issue. In April 1988, a national demonstration of more than 30,000 was held in London. 'Stop the Clause' groups sprang up in most cities, which organised local protests to complement national action. One evening, the BBC's ''
Six O'Clock News'' headlines were disrupted by shouts of "Stop Clause 28!" and when the clause was debated in the Lords, protesting lesbians abseiled from the public gallery down to the floor of the House.
The actor
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...
described Wilshire and Knight as the "ugly sisters" of a political pantomime. In 2003, in a rare public speech about his role on Section 28, Mr Wilshire stated: "Little did I realise what I was unleashing ... I got a fair amount of hate mail and a fair amount of publicity, most of it unflattering." He added that the bill had always been about misuse of taxpayers' money, and not bigotry.
The ban was eventually reversed by Parliament in 2003. Wilshire was one of 76 MPs to vote against the repeal.
In 2000 Wilshire voted to prohibit teachers from introducing steps to prevent bullying on the grounds of homosexuality in a later
Local Government Bill. Wilshire voted against homosexual couples being allowed to adopt children in 2002, against the Civil Partnership Bill of 2004, which granted a legal relationship for same-sex couples and against Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) in 2007, which outlawed discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities, services, education and public functions on the grounds of sexual orientation. In each case Wilshire's vote was in the minority.
Political views
Wilshire voted against bans on hunting and smoking, and voted both for and against the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
.
He opposed the
Good Friday Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...
in Northern Ireland and was one of the first Conservative MPs to declare that he would never support UK entry into a
single European currency
The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . Th ...
.
In 1995 David Wilshire protested to the then prime minister,
John Major
Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament ...
, about the government's proposals to allow people from Hong Kong to live in the UK. He received criticism by stating: "It's not acceptable to the British people to let in one more … this country is full up."
David Wilshire voted against the introduction of the
National Minimum Wage
The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 creates a minimum wage across the United Kingdom.. E McGaughey, ''A Casebook on Labour Law'' (Hart 2019) ch 6(1) From 1 April 2022 this was £9.50 for people age 23 and over, £9.18 for 21- to 22-year-olds, £6 ...
in 1999 by opposing the
National Minimum Wage Act 1998
The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 creates a minimum wage across the United Kingdom.. E McGaughey, ''A Casebook on Labour Law'' (Hart 2019) ch 6(1) From 1 April 2022 this was £9.50 for people age 23 and over, £9.18 for 21- to 22-year-olds, £6. ...
. In 2009 he became one of 11 MPs
to back the Employment Opportunities Bill, which aimed to abolish the minimum wage, but was defeated in Parliament.
He opposed the idea that MPs should not have second jobs and stated that "state employed parliamentarians" would be something that "Stalin would applaud". He combined being an MP with being the partner of Moorlands Research Service for eight years and from 1987 to 1990 combined being an MP with two other jobs. He was one of 21 Conservative MPs to vote in favour of keeping the additional costs allowance for MPs' second homes, despite
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
's calls for it to be reformed.
He went against the official Conservative Party line and supported the construction of a third runway at
Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...
, which, although it lies just outside the Spelthorne constituency, nevertheless provides employment for a considerable number of people locally. Wilshire described those that opposed the expansion as the "anti-brigade", which included the Conservative Party leader
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
, whom he accused of peddling a "lie" that transit passengers at Heathrow spent almost nothing.
Expenses scandal
In 2009, Wilshire was among a number of MPs exposed in the
expenses scandal, and faced considerable hostility from his constituents.
He was originally questioned by his local newspaper, the ''
Staines Informer'', about why he had claimed the maximum allowance for a second home in London when his constituency home was in a commuter belt. During the interview he stated: "In 22 years of living in London, I have always furnished the flat out of my own pocket." However, four days later ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' revealed that Wilshire had an unusual arrangement whereby he claimed thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money for monthly payments towards the cost of interior decoration for his London flat, even though he didn't have to provide any receipts for the work. Wilshire was questioned about this by his local newspaper again, in which he said he was "embarrassed, sad and sorry", but he revealed that he had not spent the money allocated to him for decoration on this yet, but would do in the future, and therefore he refused to pay the money back or resign.
It later emerged that Wilshire had spent over £1,000 of taxpayers' money on furniture in 2004, which contradicted his previous claims. When challenged on this, he refused to give an interview but sent an email to the local press in which he stated that: "I obtained the cheapest self-assembly replacement available from MFI". However, even this email caused him more problems, as in it he stated that he had bought the flat in 1983 — four years before he had become an MP and four years before when he previously revealed he had bought it. He later wrote a letter to the paper stating that he did buy the flat in 1987 and that the paper's journalists had been forgetful about facts he had told them, and had confused "furnishing a property with repairing it". The newspaper replied that it stood by what it had reported. When local demands grew for Wilshire to meet his constituents over the claims, Mr Wilshire expressed that he would only meet them one-to-one, and would not hold a public meeting.
As a result, the 'Conservative Anti-Corruption Group' was formed, which aimed to oust Wilshire at the 2010 General Election. One of its members included a former Conservative councillor and canvassing partner of Mr Wilshire. Shortly afterwards, at a Spelthorne Conservative Association Meeting, six members of the Conservative Party announced they were prepared to stand against him at the 2010 General Election.
Following further investigation by ''The Daily Telegraph'', on 14 October 2009, Wilshire asked the
Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to investigate his office expenses.
Wilshire admitted using parliamentary expenses to pay £105,000 over three years to Moorlands Research Services, a company he set up and owned with his partner Ann Palmer to run his office, but insisted it was approved by the authorities. Parliamentary expenses rules forbid MPs from entering into arrangements which "may give rise to an accusation" of profiting from public funds. Wilshire told the BBC that he had referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner as the only way to answer the questions about his expenses, and that the company had never made a profit and had been wound up.
Moorlands Research Services was never registered with
Companies House
Companies House is the executive agency of the company registrars of the United Kingdom, falling under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. All forms of companies (as permitted by the Companies Act) are i ...
, and never filed public accounts.
The following day, Wilshire announced that he would stand down as an MP, saying that he was reluctant to do this, but accepted it was the 'sensible' thing to do.
On 2 November 2009, when the Parliamentary Standards Commission ended its probe into him without producing any results, Wilshire apologised for equating his treatment over expenses to the Holocaust.
First Council of Europe Official Visit to Separatist Georgian State's Moscow Outpost
On 20 April 2010, as Co-rapporteur of the Monitoring Committee of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
The Assembly is made up o ...
(PACE) he held a meeting with member of the government of separatist
South Ossetia
South Ossetia, ka, სამხრეთი ოსეთი, ( , ), officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, is a partially recognised landlocked state in the South Caucasus. It has an officially stated populat ...
(
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
) in the self-proclaimed Embassy of the Republic of South Ossetia in Moscow. The Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that:
Other information
In 2000 Wilshire threatened to sue a
Labour Party member for
defamation
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
who had written in the ''Heathrow Villager'' that the MP was scaremongering and misleading the public about the only hospital remaining in his seat. Wilshire received criticism as the author of the piece was a cancer-suffering pensioner who was being treated at the hospital. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', which had previously been compared to the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
by Wilshire, described him as "Britain's stupidest MP" as a result.
Wilshire was among opponents to the proposal that
Princess Diana
Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...
speak to UK parliamentarians about
landmine
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...
s in 1997, following an invitation from the newly elected Labour government. She ultimately decided not to speak, following the opposition.
In 2008 he was the subject of a parliamentary enquiry after it was claimed that he raised thousands of pounds for his local party by hosting constituents on visits to the House of Commons. The enquiry cleared him of any wrongdoing.
He joined
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
in calling for the former Chilean dictator,
General Pinochet, to be released, when he was under house arrest in London in 1998.
In 2003 he pushed successfully to have
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
officials look into the UK to assess whether it is necessary to officially monitor the UK's voting procedures. He said the then government had failed to put its "house in order" to prevent fraudulent voting and accused the government of "systematically ignoring" pleas from the
Electoral Commission
An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
. "If the British government won't put its own house in order, you mustn't be surprised if there are some of us who will try to find someone else who will make them put their house in order," he told
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
's ''
World at One'' programme. He also opposed the introduction of
identity cards
An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any documentation, document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID c ...
and called for the removal of innocent children from the
United Kingdom National DNA Database
The United Kingdom National DNA Database (NDNAD; officially the ''UK National Criminal Intelligence DNA Database'') is a national DNA Database that was set up in 1995. In 2005 it had 3.1 million profiles and in 2020 it had 6.6 million profiles ...
.
He was parliamentary private secretary to
Alan Clark
Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Tra ...
in 1991, the PPS to
Peter Lloyd from 1992 to 1994, and was a Conservative
whip
A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...
in the
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. ...
from 2001 to 2005. He was a member of the Northern Ireland Select Committee (1994–97), a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee (1997–2000) and became a member of the Transport Select Committee and of the chairman's Panel in 2005. He was also elected on to the executive of the Conservatives'
1922 Committee
The 1922 Committee, formally known as the Conservative Private Members' Committee, is the parliamentary group of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The committee, consisting of all Conservative backbench member ...
in 2005.
References
External links
Guardian Unlimited Politics — Ask Aristotle: David Wilshire MPTheyWorkForYou.com — David Wilshire MPBBC Politics page
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilshire, David
1943 births
Living people
Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
People educated at Kingswood School, Bath
Borough of Spelthorne
Councillors in South West England
UK MPs 1987–1992
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010