David Davis (British politician)

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For other persons of the same name, see David Davis.
See also David Davies.
David Davis
200px‎
Constituency Haltemprice and Howden
Served 1987 — present
Majority 5,116 (10.7%)
Political Party Conservative
Portfolio Shadow Home Secretary

David Michael Davis (born December 23, 1948) is a British politician, Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Haltemprice and Howden and Shadow Home Secretary.

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[edit] Early life

Born to a single mother Betty Brown in York, North Yorkshire, Davis was initially brought up by his grandparents in York. His grandfather Walter Harrison was the son of a wealthy trawlerman and was disinherited after joining the Communist Party. His father, whom he has never looked for, was Welsh.[1] When his mother married a Polish Jewish printworker, Ronald Davis, he moved to London. They lived initially in a flat in a "slum" in Wandsworth before moving to a council estate in Tooting, South London.

On leaving school (Bec Grammar School in Tooting), his 'A' Level results were not good enough to secure a university place. Davis worked as an insurance clerk and became a member of the Territorial Army's 23 SAS Regiment in order to earn the money to retake his examinations. On doing so he won a place at Warwick University (B.Sc. Joint Hons Molecular Science/Computer Science 1968-1971). He later studied at London Business School (Master's Degree in Business 1971-1973) and Harvard University (Advanced Management Program 1984-1985).

Whilst at Warwick University, he was one of the founding members of the Student Radio station, University Radio Warwick, now known as Radio Warwick.

Davis worked for Tate & Lyle for 17 years rising to become a senior executive having saved a failing subsidiary in Canada.

[edit] Political career
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Davis was first elected to Parliament in the 1987 general election as the MP for Boothferry which, in 1997, became the constituency of Haltemprice and Howden. He was a government whip when parliament voted on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, angering many of the Maastricht rebels on his own right-wing of the party. Davis' progression through the Conservative ranks eventually led to him becoming a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1994-1997).

In 1999 Davis presented the Parliamentary Control of the Executive Bill to the House of Commons, in which he proposed to transfer ministerial exercise of the Royal Prerogative to the Commons in the following areas: the signing of treaties, the diplomatic recognition of foreign governments; European Union legislation; the appointment of ministers, peers and ambassadors; the establishment of Royal Commissions; the proclamation of Orders-in-Council unless subject to resolutions of the Commons; the exercise of the powers of the executive not made by statute; the declarations of states of emergency; the dissolution of Parliament.[1], [2]

In the following parliament, Davis held the position of Chairman of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. In this role he began to build a reputation, and some Conservatives started to mention him as being a potential future leader of the Conservative Party.

Following the resignation of William Hague, he contested the 2001 election for the leadership of the Conservative Party, finishing fourth and being appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party by the eventual winner, Iain Duncan Smith. His most notable action in this post was the suspension of the Monday Club's affiliation with the Conservative Party because of its perceived inflammatory views on race.

In 2002, Duncan Smith replaced Davis with Theresa May. Davis was on a family holiday in Florida at the time and the manner of his sacking ensured a significant amount of sympathy among Conservative Party members. His new position was to shadow the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott as Shadow Secretary of State for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. This was largely viewed as a demotion. When Duncan Smith was removed as Conservative leader by a vote of no confidence, Davis surprised commentators by quickly announcing that he would not stand for the leadership. He lent his support to Michael Howard who was not challenged allowing an uncontested election to take place. He was rewarded for this with a new role as Shadow Home Secretary.

In the role of Shadow Home Secretary, he successfully gained the 'scalp' of the then Immigration Minister Beverley Hughes, who was forced to resign in the wake of allegations that checks on Eastern European migrants had been waived, and for misleading the House of Commons. Davis was praised for his role in holding her to account at that time.

More recently Davis has turned the Conservatives away from the Labour Party's plan to reintroduce Identity cards citing spiralling costs and libertarian issues. He turned initial Conservative support into one of concern and abstention, making the final change to one of opposition much easier. Davis believes that once the true cost and unreliability of the ID card scheme is explained to the general public, they will turn against it. Davis had maintained the Conservative's pledge to curb the moral degradation that he and other front benchers have declared part and parcel of "Blair's Britain".

Davis is perceived to be socially conservative. He expressed support for the restoration of the death penalty as recently as November 2003. He is highly sceptical of the political expansion of the European Union. He voted against the repeal of Section 28 (which banned local government from promoting homosexual relationships in schools). However, he has consistently attracted support on a personal level from all sections of the party. Thus, when the gay Conservative MP Michael Brown was pictured on holiday with a 20-year-old man in 1994 (when the age of consent was still 21), Davis drove to Brown's home to offer his help.

At the 2005 General Election, he was targeted by the Liberal Democrats as part of their "decapitation plan", an attempt to undermine the Conservatives in Parliament by defeating their leading members. The targeting had extremely limited success and Davis trebled his majority to over 5,000 votes (5,116, up from 1,903) his share of the votes increasing by 4.3%.

His seat Haltemprice and Howden is in part the seat that was occupied by the fictional Conservative MP Alan B'Stard in the 1980s ITV sitcom The New Statesman.

[edit] 2005 leadership contest

Davis was initially the front runner in the 2005 Conservative leadership contest but after a poorly received speech at that year's Conservative Party Conference his campaign was seen to lose momentum.

In the first ballot of Conservative MPs on 18 October 2005, Davis came top with 62 votes. As this was less than the number of his declared supporters, the Davis bid was losing momentum. The elimination of Kenneth Clarke left the bookmakers' favourite, David Cameron, without a rival on the centre of the party. In the second ballot, held two days later on 20 October 2005, Cameron polled 90 votes, David Davis 57 votes and Liam Fox was eliminated with 51 votes [3]so David Davis went through to the next stage with David Cameron.

In spite of a strong performance in a BBC Question Time head-to-head debate in the final stage of the leadership contest, Davis could not match his rival's general popularity. Conservative party members voted to elect Cameron the new Conservative leader, Davis losing by a margin of 64,398 votes to 134,446 votes. Cameron rewarded him by keeping him on as Shadow Home Secretary.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Daily Mirror (London); Jun 26, 2001; p. 14
  1. Norfolk, Andrew (7th October 2005) "Davis' grandfather and the Jarrow crusade that wasn't" The Times Online
  2. BBC News Online (5th October 2005) "Davis tells Tories to 'walk tall'"
  3. Assinder, Nick (5th October 2005) "Did Davis do enough?" BBC News Online
  4. Tempest, Matthew (5th October 2005) "Odds lengthen on Davis for Tory leader"

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir Paul Bryan		 Member of Parliament for Boothferry
1987–1997		 Succeeded by
Constituency abolished
Preceded by
Constituency created		 Member of Parliament for Haltemprice and Howden
1997 – present		 Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by
Michael Ancram		 Chairman of the Conservative Party
2001–2002		 Succeeded by
Theresa May
Preceded by
Office created		 Shadow Deputy Prime Minister of the UK
2002–2003		 Succeeded by
Office abolished
Preceded by
Oliver Letwin		 Shadow Home Secretary
2003 – present		 Incumbent
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