Oliver Eden, 8th Baron Henley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oliver Michael Robert Eden, 8th Baron Henley (born 12 November 1953) is a British politician and Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Lord Henley is the eldest son and fourth child of Michael Francis Eden, 7th Baron Henley and Nancy Mary Walton. He succeeded to the peerage in 1977 upon the death of his father. Despite Baron Henley being an Irish peerage, he is able to sit in the House of Lords by virtue of a United Kingdom peerage granted to the 3rd Baron Henley, namely Baron Northington.

Lord Henley served as a House of Lords whip under Margaret Thatcher from 1989 to July 1990. He then moved to become a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security, retaining the position when John Major rose to power and serving until 1993. He was then briefly moved to the Department of Employment, when in 1994 he was again fleetingly moved to the Ministry of Defence. In 1995 he was promoted to become Minister of State at the Department for Education and Employment, serving until the Conservative government was dismissed at the 1997 general election.

With the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, Lord Henley along with almost all other hereditary peers lost his automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. He was however elected as one of the 90 elected hereditary peers to remain in the House of Lords pending completion of House of Lords reform.

Lord Henley is, as of 2006, a Conservative spokesman on Constitutional and Legal Affairs in the House of Lords.