Francis Maude

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The Rt Hon. Francis Maude MP
Chairman of the Conservative Party
In office December 6, 2005 – present
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Constituency	Horsham
Born	4 July 1953 Oxfordshire, England
Political party	Conservative
Children	Julia, Cecily, Harry, Alastair, Lydia.
Website	francismaude.com

Francis Anthony Aylmer Maude (born 4 July 1953) is a British politician, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Horsham, Chairman of the Conservative Party and a member of the Privy Council.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Outside politics 2 Personal life 3 See also 4 References 5 External links 6 Offices held

[edit] Biography

The son of former Conservative minister Angus Maude, Francis Maude was educated at Abingdon School, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and the College of Law and practised criminal law. He was a councillor for the City of Westminster 1978–84.

He was MP for North Warwickshire from 1983 to 1992, serving as a junior minister in a variety of posts until he lost his seat at the 1992 general election to the Labour candidate, Mike O'Brien.

Maude worked in banking as Managing Director of Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd while outside parliament, but returned to politics, and was elected in the 1997 general election to the different and safer seat of Horsham (a town with which he had few links). In his second spell in Parliament he has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Following the 2001 election he managed Michael Portillo's unsuccessful bid for the Conservative leadership. After the election of Iain Duncan Smith, he declined to make himself available to serve in the Shadow Cabinet, and returned to the backbenches. He is considered to be a 'moderniser', and is Chairman of the think tank "Conservatives for Change".

In theThe Daily Telegraph (24 June 2002) he stated that the Conservative Party's electoral problems had been caused by their failure to "look and sound like modern Britain". He was subsequently attacked in the same newspaper on 27 June by Michael Keith Smith, chairman of the Conservative Democratic Alliance, (a group formed in the wake of the Monday Club's expulstion from the Conservative Party.

Norman Tebbit's secretary, Beryl Goldsmith, also sneered at Maude on the same day asking "How many male, white, straight Conservative MPs currently passionately campaigning for the selection of more women, and more men and women from ethnic minorities, would voluntarily relinquish their own seats in order to encourage local associations to follow the policy line they preach from their own smug, safe base? Precious few I would guess — including Mr Francis Maude."

In the post-election 2005 reshuffle, Maude returned to the Shadow Cabinet as Chairman of the Conservative Party.

In 2006, he told the gay news website (PinkNews.co.uk) that his opions on gay issues were "informed by my family, my wonderful, intelligent, beloved brother. The gay scene in London in the 1980s was quite aggressively promiscuous and I think if society generally and the government I served in had been more willing to recognise gay people then there would have been less of that problem." AIDS.^[1]

[edit] Outside politics

In 2006 a Labour Party activist the blogger Recess Monkey wrote that the Jubilee Trust, a company which Maude is a non-executive Chairman, held 21% of American pornography actress Jill Kelly's adult DVD business. It was argued that this conflicted with the role Francis Maude was playing within the Conservative Party promoting a female friendly agenda, including additional selection of women candidates^[2]

He has also been linked by The Observer to the company behind controversial advertisements, which some people have complained are linked to binge drinking. The commercials - for WKD alcohol - have since been banned.[1]

[edit] Personal life

Maude is father of five: Alastair, Lydia, Harry, Cecily and Julia

[edit] See also

• Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (UK)

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-449.html
2. ^ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17851468%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=true%2dblue%2dtory-name_page.html

[edit] External links

• Francis Maude MP official site
• Conservative Party — Rt Hon Francis Maude MP official biography
• Guardian Unlimited Politics Ask Aristotle — Francis Maude MP
• They Work For You — Francis Maude MP
• The Public Whip — Francis Maude MP voting record
• BBC Politics — Francis Maude profile 10 February 2005

[edit] Offices held

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by (new constituency)	Member of Parliament for North Warwickshire 1983–1992	Succeeded by Mike O'Brien
Preceded by Peter Hordern	Member of Parliament for Horsham 1997 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Peter Lilley	Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1990–1992	Succeeded by Stephen Dorrell
Preceded by Liam Fox	Chairman of the Conservative Party 2005 – present	Incumbent

Persondata
NAME	Maude, Francis Anthony Aylmer
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	British Conservative Party politician
DATE OF BIRTH	4 July 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH	Oxfordshire, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH