Robert Gurth Hughes (born 14 July 1951) is a British

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 from 1980–1997 and Government Minister in the 1990s.

Parliamentary career

Hughes was unsuccessful as a candidate for

Stepney and Poplar Stepney and Poplar was a parliamentary constituency in London, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative b ...

in the 1979 general election. In 1980 Hughes was elected to the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

representing

Croydon Central Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensive ...

, serving until 1986. He was the Conservative candidate in the

1983 Bermondsey by-election A by-election was held in the Bermondsey constituency in South London, on 24 February 1983, following the resignation of Labour MP Bob Mellish. Peter Tatchell stood as the candidate for the Labour Party, and Simon Hughes stood for the Liberal P ...

and contested that constituency's successor seat of

Southwark and Bermondsey Southwark and Bermondsey was an inner city constituency in London, United Kingdom. Its sole Member of Parliament was Simon Hughes, in the first stage of his career in the house, as a Liberal then Liberal Democrat after the party's founding in ...

at the 1983 general election. In 1987 he was elected as 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

Harrow West Harrow West is a Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituency in Greater London created in 1945 and represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK P ...

. He successfully defended his seat at the 1992 election but at the 1997 election his 18,000 majority swung to a Labour majority of 1,240 votes for Gareth Thomas. Hughes' Parliamentary Aide in the Commons until May 1997 was fellow Harrow politician, Councillor

Mark Versallion Mark Anthony Gaius Versallion is a British politician, businessman, and officer in the Royal Naval Reserve. He was the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Stretford and Urmston from 2007 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2011 was Chai ...

. He served as a Government Whip in 1993 when the Maastricht bill went through the

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

, and was promoted to

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister o ...

at the Office of Public Service and Science in the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

in 1994 with responsibility for the Science Research Councils and the Medical Research Council. On 6 March 1995, Hughes resigned as Minister responsible for the

Citizen's Charter The Citizen's Charter was a British political initiative launched by the then prime minister, John Major, on 22 July 1991, less than a year into his premiership. Aims It aimed to improve public services in the UK by: *Making administration acco ...

over an affair with a constituency worker who had come to him for help from an abusive relationship. Hughes confessed the affair and resigned when he believed that the liaison was about to be exposed in a Sunday newspaper. He opposed the Conservative party line in 1996 by supporting a total ban on handguns in the wake of the

Dunblane Massacre The Dunblane massacre took place at Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, near Stirling, Scotland, on 13 March 1996, when Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 pupils and one teacher, and injured 15 others, before killing himself. It remains the deadliest ...

. Robert Hughes is a keen supporter of

Land value tax A land value tax (LVT) is a levy on the value of land (economics), land without regard to buildings, personal property and other land improvement, improvements. It is also known as a location value tax, a point valuation tax, a site valuation ta ...

to eliminate income and sales taxes.

Post-political career

Upon leaving the Commons he became General Secretary and then Executive Director of the optical trade body, the Federation of Ophthalmic & Dispensing Opticians. He became the Chief Executive of the

Association of Optometrists The Association of Optometrists (AOP) is the leading representative membership organisation for optometrists in the United Kingdom. It supports over 82% of practising optometrists (members) to fulfil their professional roles to protect the nati ...

(AOP) in 2004. In 2011 he left AOP to become the Chief Executive of the Surrey Association for Visual Impairment. As of 2017 he is now the Chairman of the Guildford Conservative Association. In May 2021 he was elected as a Conservative county councillor for Shere in the

Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council administering certain services in the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1965 the Conservative Party has ...

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Robert 1951 births Living people Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Politics of the London Borough of Croydon Members of the Greater London Council UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997