Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

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Geoffrey Robert Clifton-Brown (born March 23, 1953) British politician and farmer. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for the Cotswold constituency.

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[edit] Early life

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown was born in Cambridge and was educated at Tormore School, in Upper Deal, Kent and Eton College before attending the Royal Agricultural College where he qualified as a chartered surveyor in 1975. He began his career as a graduate estate surveyor at the Property Services Agency in Dorchester in 1975 and later in the year became an investment surveyor with Jones Lang Wootton (became Jones Lang LaSalle in 1999). He has been the managing director of his own farming business since 1979. He became a Freeman of the City of London, which should come in handy should he wish to drive his sheep over London Bridge. He became the vice chairman of the Norfolk North Conservative Association in 1984, becoming its chairman 1986-1991.

[edit] Parliamentary career

He was selected to contest the safe Conservative parliamentary constituency of Cirencester and Tewkesbury following the retirement of the former Cabinet minister Nicholas Ridley. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown won the seat at the 1992 General Election with a majority of 16,058, and has remained an MP since. He made his maiden speech on June 12, 1992.[1] On his election, he became a member of the Environment Select Committee until 1995 when he was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Douglas Hogg. His constituency was abolished but he contested and won the newly drawn seat of Cotswold at the 1997 General Election, he returned to the backbenches whilst William Hague was the Leader of the Opposition, and returned under the leadership of Iain Duncan Smith became the shadow minister for Local and Devolved Government Affairs in 2002. Since the 2005 General Election he has been the Assistant Chief Whip. On the accession of David Cameron as Leader of the Conservative Party, he was appointed the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Investment.

[edit] Personal life

He is part of a Westminster dynasty going back to the 19th century and producing 7 MPs including two Speakers; Douglas Clifton Brown (1943-1951) and Harry Hylton-Foster (1959-1965) and incidentally, the speaker in between his two ancestors was William Morrison, who represented Cirencester and Tewkesbury - Geoffrey Clifton-Brown's original constituency. He enjoyed fox hunting and spoke passionately for its continuation. He owns thousands of acres in Norfolk, Gloucestershire and in Scotland. He married Alexandra Peto-Shepherd (daughter of Wing Commander Dennis Peto-Shepherd) in 1979 in Salisbury and they have a son, Edward (born September 1985) and a daughter, Jacqueline - who is known to be working as a modern foreign languages teacher in an all girls school in south east London. The marriage has subsequently been dissolved since 2004. He used to live in Moreton-in-Marsh.

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[edit] Offices Held

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Nicholas Ridley		 Member of Parliament for Cirencester and Tewkesbury
1992–1997		 Succeeded by
Constituency Abolished
Preceded by
Constituency Created		 Member of Parliament for The Cotswolds
1997 – present		 Incumbent
Languages