Sir Peter James Luff (born 18 February 1955) is Chair of the

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and the

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. Formerly a

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politician, he was the

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(MP) for

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from 1997 to 2015 and for

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

from 1992 until 1997. He was a junior Defence Minister from 2010 to 2012.

Early life

Peter Luff was born in the

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

town of

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and attended the local

Windsor Grammar School The Windsor Boys' School is a comprehensive all-boys upper school and sixth form located on Maidenhead Road in Windsor, Berkshire, England, within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Local Authority. The school specialises in the arts. ...

. He studied at

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th century ...

, receiving a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

(BA) degree in Economics in 1976; as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(MA Cantab) degree. Before entering parliament, he worked for three years from 1977 as a research assistant to the Conservative MP Peter Walker, before managing

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conserv ...

's private office for two years from 1980. He became the managing director of Good Relations Ltd, a public affairs company, in 1982. In 1987, he became a special adviser to the

Secretary of State for Trade and Industry The secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The incumbent is a memb ...

, David Young. He became a senior consultant for Lowe Bell Communications (later

Bell Pottinger Bell Pottinger Private (legally BPP Communications Ltd.) was a British multinational public relations, reputation management and marketing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. On 12 September 2017 it went into administration (bankr ...

Communications) in 1989, before again working for Good Relations from 1990.

Parliamentary career

He contested

Holborn and St Pancras Holborn and St Pancras () is a parliamentary constituency in Greater London that was created in 1983. It has been represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2015 by Sir Keir Starmer, the current Leade ...

at the general election of

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 ...

, but was comfortably beaten by the sitting

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MP,

Frank Dobson Frank Gordon Dobson (15 March 1940 – 11 November 2019) was a British Labour Party politician. As Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St. Pancras from 1979 to 2015, he served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Health from 1997 ...

. He was first elected to Parliament for

, when he succeeded his former boss, Peter Walker. Following changes in the parliamentary constituency boundaries, he was selected for the new

constituency, comprising large areas of three former constituencies, defeating another sitting Conservative MP,

Eric Forth Eric Forth (9 September 1944 – 17 May 2006) was a British Conservative politician. He served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Birmingham North from 1979 to 1984. He then served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Worcestershir ...

, for the nomination. He won the

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comfortably and was a member of the

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from 1992. In the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

Labour landslide, he held his seat, and retained it until standing down in 2015. He was appointed a

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(PPS) in 1993 to the

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, and from 1996 he served as PPS to both

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the prisons minister at the Home Office and Lord Mackay,

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. He held these two positions simultaneously until the defeat of the

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at the general election of

. He served on many parliamentary select committees, including chairing the

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

committee from 1997 to 2000, and from 2005 to 2010 he chaired what was successively known as the Trade and Industry Committee; the

Business and Enterprise Select Committee The Business and Enterprise Select Committee was a Select committee (United Kingdom), select committee of the British House of Commons, House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee was to examine the expendi ...

; and the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee. He was the founder member of the Parliamentary Hunting with Hounds Middle Way Group, and took a keen parliamentary interest in India. In the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition of May 2010, Luff was appointed as a junior Defence minister at 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 ...

, with the post of

Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology The Minister of State for Defence Procurement is, as a Minister of State, a mid-level defence minister in the Ministry of Defence of the British Government. The current incumbent of the post, Conservative MP Alex Chalk, was appointed in October 202 ...

. Prior to the general election of

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, Luff had stood down as a candidate. 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 ...

in the 2014 New Year Honours for political and public service. He joined the

and the

as Chair of the Board of Trustees on 30 March 2015.

Personal life

He married Julia Jenks in 1982. They have a son and a daughter.

References

External links

Peter Luff MP
''official constituency website'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Luff, Peter 1955 births Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Living people Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 Knights Bachelor People from Windsor, Berkshire Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Worcester