Richard Lewis Page (born 22 February 1941) is a former

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

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) in the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and from December 1979 to 2005.

Early life

Born the son of Victor Charles Page, he went to the independent

Hurstpierpoint College (''Blessed are the pure in heart'') , established = , closed = , type = Public SchoolIndependent School , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Dominic Mo ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

and Luton Technical College, gaining a HNC in Mechanical Engineering in 1962. He was an apprentice at

Vauxhall Motors Vauxhall Motors LimitedCompany No. 00135767. Incorporated 12 May 1914, name changed from Vauxhall Motors Limited to General Motors UK Limited on 16 April 2008, reverted to Vauxhall Motors Limited on 18 September 2017. () is a British car compa ...

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

from 1959 to 1963, and then worked for Page Holdings, becoming the Chairman from 1985 to 1995 and 1997 onwards. He was member of the Young Conservatives from 1964 to 1966 and from 1968 to 1971, he was a district councillor in

Banstead Banstead is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It is south of Sutton, south-west of Croydon, south-east of Kingston-upon-Thames, and south of Central London. On the North Downs, it is on three of the four main ...

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. ...

Parliamentary career

Page contested

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

in the

February February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years or 29 in leap years, with the 29th day being called the ''leap day''. It is the first of five months not to have 31 days (th ...

and October 1974 elections. He won the seat in the by-election caused by the elevation of Labour's

Fred Peart Thomas Frederick Peart, Baron Peart, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (30 April 1914 – 26 August 1988) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician who served in the Labour governments of the 1960s and 1970s and was a candidate fo ...

to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

in 1976, becoming the first Conservative to represent the constituency since it was created in 1918, before losing the seat in May 1979. Page was not out of Parliament long as he subsequently won the

safe A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form a door. The body and ...

Conservative seat of

South West Hertfordshire South West Hertfordshire is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, represented since 2019 by Gagan Mohindra, a Conservative. Constituency profile Elevated and bordering Greater London and Buckinghamshire, this part of Her ...

in a by-election in December that year. He is therefore distinguished as one of a handful of MPs who have been successful in two

by-elections A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. He served as Private Parliamentary Secretary to the

Secretary of State for Trade 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 ...

(

John Biffen William John Biffen, Baron Biffen, (3 November 1930 – 14 August 2007), was a British Conservative Party politician. A member of the House of Lords, he was previously a Member of Parliament for over 35 years, and served in Margaret Thatcher's ...

) from 1981 to 1982 and then to the Leader of the House (

) from 1983 to 1987. He was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry under

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 ...

, with responsibility for

small business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...

Sustainable energy Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenh ...

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and BNFL (Nuclear Energy). He then was appointed as the opposition front-bench spokesman on Trade and Industry from 2000 to 2001 He was the lead minister in the privatisation of

AEA Technology Ricardo-AEA Ltd, trading as Ricardo Energy & Environment, was formed on November 8, 2012, when Ricardo acquired the business, operating assets and employees engaged in the business of AEA Technology Plc (AEAT, in administration) (AEA Europe), for ...

, and used his knowledge of the private members' ballot procedure to be successful with two

private members' bills A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in w ...

from the single private members' ballot slot. Page moved a 10-minute rule bill to reduce the number of MPs, claiming it could allow MPs to be better paid and save the state money. Page was a Member of the Public Accounts Committee in the years 1987-95 and 1997–2000. He was also the Vice-Chairman of: the Conservative Trade and Industry Committee from 1988 to 1995; the All Party Engineering Group from 1997 to 2005; and the All Party Chemistry Group from 1997 to 2005. He was the Joint Chairman of the All-Party Racing and Bloodstock Committee from 1998 to 2005 and Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Scientific Committee from 2003 to 2005. He was also International Chairman of the Conservative's Central Office from 1999 to 2000 and the Governor of the Foundation for Western Democracy from 1998 to 2000. He was one of only 13 Conservative MPs who spoke and voted against the decision to invade Iraq (18 March 2003) and the way the re-construction progressed. He stepped down from 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 2005 General Election due to his wife's ill health.

Later life

He was Governor of the Royal Masonic School from 1984 to 1995 and from 1999 to 2013. He was Honorary Treasurer of The Leukamia Research Fund from 1991 to 1995, and has been Chairman of Keep Southwater Green since 2015. He was the master of the Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Richard 1941 births Living people People educated at Hurstpierpoint College Alumni of the University of Bedfordshire Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Cumbria MPs 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 Politics of Dacorum