Andrew William Murrison (born 24 April 1961) is a British doctor,

naval officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent contex ...

and politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served 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 o ...

(MP) for South West Wiltshire, previously Westbury, since the 2001 general election. He has been serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence People, Veterans and Service Families since October 2022. Murrison has held a variety of positions within the British government, including

Minister for International Security Strategy The Minister for International Security Strategy was a British government position. The last holder of the post was Andrew Murrison, Conservative Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, The post was a junior ministeri ...

, and

Minister of State for Northern Ireland The Minister of State for Northern Ireland is a mid-level position in the Northern Ireland Office in the British government. It is currently held by Steve Baker, who took the office on 7 September 2022. Responsibilities The minister has the ...

. Most recently he served as the

Minister of State for International Development and the Middle East The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Americas and Caribbean is a ministerial office in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the Government of the United Kingdom, British government. The office of Minister of State for Midd ...

. In Parliament, he chaired the

Northern Ireland Affairs Committee The Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee (or simply the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The committee's remit is to examine the expenditure, administr ...

from July 2017 to May 2019.

Early life

The son of William Gordon Murrison RD and Marion Murrison, Murrison was born in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

and grew up in Harwich, Essex, where he attended the local Harwich High School (now Harwich and Dovercourt High School), and the

Britannia Royal Naval College Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), commonly known as Dartmouth, is the naval academy of the United Kingdom and the initial officer training establishment of the Royal Navy. It is located on a hill overlooking the port of Dartmouth, Devon, En ...

, Dartmouth.Robert Waller & Byron Criddle, ''The Almanac of British Politics'', Routledge, 2002
p. 852
at books.google.com

Medical and naval career

Having been awarded a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

scholarship, Murrison qualified as a doctor from the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

's medical school in 1984. He holds the degrees of MD,

MB ChB Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

. Until 2000, Murrison served in the Royal Navy as a medical officer based at Fareham and retired with the rank of Surgeon-Commander. During his naval career he served as an Honorary Research

Registrar A registrar is an official keeper of records made in a register. The term may refer to: Education * Registrar (education), an official in an academic institution who handles student records * Registrar of the University of Oxford, one of the se ...

Southampton General Hospital Southampton General Hospital (SGH) is a large teaching hospital in Southampton, Hampshire, England run by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was founded in 1900 as the Southampton Union Infirmary in Shi ...

and spent one year as a postgraduate student at

Hughes Hall, Cambridge Hughes Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. It is the oldest of the University of Cambridge's postgraduate colleges. The college also admits undergraduates, though undergraduates admitted by the college must b ...

, obtaining a Diploma in Public Health. From 2000, he worked as a general practitioner

locum A locum, or locum tenens, is a person who temporarily fulfills the duties of another; the term is especially used for physicians or clergy. For example, a ''locum tenens physician'' is a physician who works in the place of the regular physician. ...

in Wiltshire and as a consultant in occupational health at

Gloucestershire Royal Hospital Gloucestershire Royal Hospital is an acute District General Hospital on the Great Western Road in Gloucester operated by the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. History In 1912, construction on a 149-bed infirmary started on Great Wes ...

. In 2003, as a naval reserve officer, Murrison was recalled to serve in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

for a six-month tour of duty.

Political career

Before entering full-time politics, Murrison was a member of the

Bow Group The Bow Group is a UK-based think tank promoting conservative opinion. Founded in 1951, it is the oldest group of its kind, counting many senior Conservative Party MPs and peers among its members. It represents a forum for political debate with i ...

, an assistant to Sir Peter Lloyd (the MP for his home constituency of Fareham), and then from 1999 to 2000 an assistant to Lord Freeman, whose role at

Conservative Central Office The Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ), formerly known as Conservative Central Office (CCO), is the headquarters of the British Conservative Party, housing its central staff and committee members, including campaign coordinators and man ...

was screening potential parliamentary candidates. In September 2000, Murrison was selected as the prospective

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 in ...

candidate for the West Wiltshire constituency of Westbury and in June 2001 he was elected as Member of Parliament for the constituency. He was then appointed to 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. T ...

Science and Technology Select Committee The Science and Technology Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The original Science and Technology Committee was abolished upon the creation of the Innovation, Universities, Sci ...

and was also a member of the Standing Committee on the NHS Reform Bill. In the 2001 Conservative leadership election, Murrison supported

Michael Portillo Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (; born 26 May 1953) is a British journalist, broadcaster and former politician. His broadcast series include railway documentaries such as '' Great British Railway Journeys'' and '' Great Continental Railway Jour ...

. In November 2003, Murrison was appointed as a Shadow Minister for

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

, while also taking an active interest in defence policy. In 2004, in a free vote, he voted against the bill to ban

foxhunting Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of ho ...

and

hare coursing Hare coursing is the pursuit of hares with greyhounds and other sighthounds, which chase the hare by sight, not by scent. In some countries, it is a legal, competitive activity in which dogs are tested on their ability to run, overtake and turn ...

which became the

Hunting Act 2004 The Hunting Act 2004 (c 37) is an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which bans the hunting of most wild mammals (notably Red fox, foxes, deer, European hare, hares and American mink, mink) with dogs in England and W ...

. He was returned to Parliament at the General Election in May 2005, and was appointed as shadow defence minister. In 2005, he spoke in parliament against European military union, saying "The threat that the proposed Euro force might pose to one of the most successful post-war organisations,

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

, and to our symbiotic relationship with the United States, has surely not been adequately explored". In Commons divisions in 2007 on a number of

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

reform options, Murrison voted for options 7 and 8, proposing a 100% elected House of Lords, including the removal of all remaining hereditary peers, and against options 4 and 5, which proposed a partly elected and partly appointed upper chamber. In the debate on a Human Embryology and Fertilisation Bill in May 2008, he supported amendments to the bill aimed at reducing the maximum

gestational age In obstetrics, gestational age is a measure of the age of a pregnancy which is taken from the beginning of the woman's last menstrual period (LMP), or the corresponding age of the gestation as estimated by a more accurate method if available. Su ...

for an abortion from twenty-four to twenty weeks, commenting: "The shock of the abortion list twenty-five years ago is still clear in my mind. Since then, societal attitudes have changed, in part because of improved imaging of the unborn child. I'm sure the law needs updating and twenty weeks appears to strike the right balance". He is the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Clinical Leadership and Management, and is a member of the "Cardiac Risk in the Young All Party Parliamentary Group". Murrison's Westbury constituency was abolished at the end of the Parliament of 2005 to 2010, but he was the Conservative party candidate for the new South West Wiltshire constituency, which includes most of his former constituency, and was elected on 6 May 2010.

Appointments since 2010

* After re-election to Parliament – appointed as PPS to the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley owing to his experience as a physician. * November 2011 – appointed as the Prime Minister's special representative for First World War centenary commemorations. * September 2012 – as part of the Prime Minister's first major cabinet reshuffle, appointed as

in the Ministry of Defence. * July 2014 – appointed as

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 ...

at the

Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; ga, Oifig Thuaisceart Éireann, Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of State for N ...

. *January 2016 – appointed

Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy A Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy is a position in British foreign policy, within the Department for International Trade since 2016, and formerly with the UK Trade & Investment government department from 2003 to 2016. Trade Envoys are appointed by ...

to Tunisia and Morocco, until his resignation on 5 July 2022.

Family

Murrison is married to Jennifer (Jenny) Munden, a

physiotherapist Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patien ...

. They have five daughters and live near Mere in Wiltshire.MURRISON, Dr Andrew William
at ukwhoswho.com (subscription site)

Honours

UK Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal ribbon

UK Queen EII Platinum Jubilee Medal ribbon

* He was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 22 May 2019 at Buckingham Palace. This gave him the Honorific Prefix "

The Right Honourable ''The Right Honourable'' (abbreviation: ''Rt Hon.'' or variations) is an honorific Style (form of address), style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire and the Commonwealth ...

" for Life.

Publications

* *

References

External links

Dr Andrew Murrison MP
official site *
Profile
at the Conservative Party website

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murrison, Andrew 1961 births 20th-century English medical doctors 21st-century English medical doctors Alumni of Hughes Hall, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Bristol Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Graduates of Britannia Royal Naval College Living people Members of the Bow Group Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland Office junior ministers People from Harwich People from Mere, Wiltshire Military personnel from Colchester Royal Naval Reserve personnel Royal Navy Medical Service officers Royal Navy personnel of the Gulf War Royal Navy personnel of the Iraq War UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present