Sir John Paul Stanley (born 19 January 1942) is a

British Conservative Party The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. It is the current governing party, ...

politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tonbridge and Malling from 1974 to 2015.

Education

Stanley was educated at two independent schools: at Copthorne Preparatory School near

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

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

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Early career

Stanley was at the

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from 1968 to 1969. He worked for Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp Ltd (RTZ) from 1969 to 1979. He is a Senior Network Member at the European Leadership Network (ELN).

Parliamentary career

Stanley contested the

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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 A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

to Margaret Thatcher from 1976 to 1979, during her time as

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. 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 {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

. 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 remained on the back benches thereafter. He was mainly interested in defence and foreign policy, having sat on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee from 1992 onwards. He was re-adopted as the Conservative party candidate for his constituency in 2008 for the 2010 general election. In March 2012, Stanley announced that he would stand down at the

next general election This is a list of the next general elections around the world in democratic polities. The general elections listed are for the government of each jurisdiction. These elections determine the Prime Minister and makeup of the legislature in a parli ...

. In May 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

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, which the Coalition government had decided to privatise.

Personal life

He married Susan Giles on 21 December 1968 in the City of London; they later divorced. The couple had a son and daughter.

Honours

* He was sworn in as a member of

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on 16 June 1984. This was announced in the 1984 Queen's Birthday Honours List. This gave him the

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" The Right Honourable" for Life. * He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

on 13 December 1988. This allowed him to be referred to as " Sir John Stanley".

References

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 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stanley, John Paul 1942 births Living people Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford People educated at Copthorne Preparatory School People educated at Repton School Northern Ireland Office junior ministers Knights Bachelor