Iain Campbell Mills (21 April 1940 – 16 January 1997) was a

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 ...

politician in the United Kingdom. Mills was educated in southern Africa and subsequently worked as a Market Planning Executive for Dunlop. He served as a

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

Lichfield District Council Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of ...

from 1974 until 1976. He entered 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. ...

at the 1979 general election as

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 the constituency of Meriden, and held the constituency until his death shortly before the general election of 1997. His successor was

Caroline Spelman Dame Caroline Alice Spelman (' Cormack; born 4 May 1958) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Meriden in the West Midlands from 1997 to 2019. From May 2010 to September 2012 she was the Sec ...

. The death of Mills from

alcohol poisoning Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ps ...

Dolphin Square Dolphin Square is a block of private apartment, flats with some ground floor business units near the River Thames in Pimlico, Westminster, London built between 1935 in architecture, 1935 and 1937 in architecture, 1937. Until the building of High ...

, London, caused the government of

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 ...

to lose its parliamentary majority. This, along with the Wirral South by-election held a month later, resulted in Major announcing the 1997 general election less than 4 months later.

Sources

* ''The BBC Guide to Parliament'', BBC Books, 1979, . * http://www.election.demon.co.uk

External links

* 1940 births 1997 deaths 20th-century British businesspeople Alcohol-related deaths in England Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Conservative Party (UK) councillors Councillors in Staffordshire UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1940s-stub