Tony Baldry

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Anthony Brian Baldry, known as Tony Baldry, (born July 10, 1950) British politician, and is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Banbury.

Tony Baldry

Born in 1950, he was educated at the Leighton Park School and the University of Sussex. Baldry reached the rank of Colonel in the Territorial Army during his nearly 20 years in the regiment from 1971. In 1974 he became a personal assistant to Margaret Thatcher, and was Called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1975, after which he became a director at the New Opportunity Press.

He won the Robert Schumann Silver Medal in 1978, and the following year he contested the Parliamentary seat of Thurrock and was defeated by Labour's Oonagh McDonald. Before his being elected in 1983, Baldry was the Vice President of The National Children's Home.

Following the retirement of veteran Conservative MP Neil Marten at Banbury, Baldry contested the seat at the 1983 General Election and was duly elected to Parliament.

From 1985 to 1990, Baldry was a Parliamentary Private Secretary, successively to Lynda Chalker and John Wakeham. On the election of John Major as Prime Minister in 1990, Baldry finally entered government initially as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Energy and moved sideways later in the year to the Department for the Environment. In 1994, he moved sideways again to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 1995 he was promoted to the rank of Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, a position he held until the fall of the Major government in 1997. Whilst in office, his civil servants had nicknamed him 'Baldrick'.

He was dropped from the frontbench by William Hague, since when he has remained on the backbenches, and is seen as being a supporter of David Cameron whose constituency, Witney, is next to his in Oxfordshire. He is also a practising barrister and joint Head of Chambers at One Essex Court in the Temple, London.