Tim Boswell

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Timothy Eric Boswell, known as Tim Boswell, (born December 2, 1942) is a British politician, and is the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Daventry.

The son of a farmer, Tim Boswell was educated at Marlborough College and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Classics and a diploma in agricultural economics. He joined the Conservative Research Department in 1966, becoming head of the economics section in 1974. He stood for Parliament at the February 1974 General Election in Rugby but was defeated by Labour's William Price by 6,154 votes.

Tim Boswell has had a 480 acre farm in Northamptonshire since 1974, he was elected as the Treasurer of the Daventry Conservative Association in 1976 and subsequently its Chairman from 1979-1983. He became a political advisor to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Michael Jopling for two years from 1984.

Boswell was chosen to contest the Daventry constituency after the sitting Conservative MP and former Labour Cabinet member Reg Prentice had announced his retirement. Tim Boswell was elected as the Conservative MP for Daventry at the 1987 General Election with a majority of 19,690 and has held the seat very comfortably since.

Tim Boswell's Westminster career began unsurprisingly as a Member of the Agriculture Select Committee in 1987. He became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury Peter Lilley in 1989. Tim Boswell entered John Major's government in 1990 as an Assistant Government Whip, following the 1992 General Election he was promoted within the Whip's Office and became a Lord Commissioner to the Treasury.

In December 1992, Tim Boswell was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and moved in the same position at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food until the Major government fell at the 1997 General Election.

In opposition Boswell was a spokesman on the Treasury in the immediate aftermath of the 1997 election defeat and became a spokesman on Trade and Industry under William Hague, before speaking on Education and Employment in 1999 until after the 2001 General Election. He became the spokesman for Work and Pensions under the leadership of Iain Duncan Smith, moving briefly to speak on Constitutional Affairs in 2003 under Michael Howard and back to Work and Pensions in 2004, where he remains following the 2005 General Election.

Tim Boswell is married to Helen Delahy Rees and they have three daughters. Within his constituency he can boast Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix; Althorp, the childhood home of Diana, Princess of Wales and her brother the Earl Spencer; and Thenford, the village of the mansion home of Michael Heseltine.

On 31 March 2006, he announced his intention not to contest the next general election, provided it does not take place unexpectedly soon. The Daventry seat is due to be split in two before the next general election, with the northern part becoming part of a new Daventry constituency and the southern part becoming part of a South Northamptonshire constituency.