James Gray (UK politician)

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James Whiteside Gray (born November 7, 1954) is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for North Wiltshire.

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[edit] Early life and career

Born in Scotland, the son of a doctor mother and a Minister of religion father (John Gray, minister at Dunblane Cathedral, and later Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1977.) He was educated at the Hillhead Primary School, Glasgow and the Glasgow High School, before studying history at the University of Glasgow where he was awarded a master's degree in 1975. He furthered his studies at Christ Church, Oxford where he completed his history thesis in 1977.

He worked as a graduate management trainee with P&O for a year until 1978 when he was appointed as a ship broker with Anderson Hughes where he remained until his appointment as the managing director of GNI Freight Futures in 1984, in which capacity he served until 1992. He was a member of the Baltic Exchange from 1978, becoming a director of the futures exchange 1989-91. From 1977 he served in the Honourable Artillery Company within the Territorial Army based in Islington for seven years. In 1978 he became a Freeman of the City of London, and was awarded the Lloyd's of London Book Prize in 1987. [1]

[edit] Public life

Prior to his election to Parliament Gray acted as a special advisor to the Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Howard and his successor John Gummer 1991-3, and in 1995 was a director of the lobbying firm Westminster Strategy, where he remained until his election to parliament. He also served as governor of two schools in Balham in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

[edit] 1992 General Election

He unsuccessfully contested the Scottish Highlands seat of Ross, Cromarty and Skye at the 1992 General Election and was defeated by the sitting Liberal Democrat MP Charles Kennedy by 7,630 votes. After the election he was elected as the vice chairman of the Tooting Conservative Association for two years in 1994.

[edit] 1997 General Election

At the next election, 1997 General Election, Gray was elected to the House of Commons as MP for the Wiltshire North constituency following the retirement of the Conservative MP Richard Needham. Gray won the seat with a majority of 3,475 and has remained the MP there since. He made his maiden speech on June 11, 1997, in which he spoke of his constituency's largest town of Chippenham, and of his sadness at the massacre in his childhood home town of Dunblane.[1]

Gray was appointed as a frontbench spokesman on education and employment by William Hague in 1999, becoming an Opposition Whip in 2000. Following the 2001 General Election he was appointed as a spokesman on defence by the new party leader Iain Duncan Smith. He was moved in 2003 by Michael Howard as the spokesman on transport and the environment. After the 2005 General Election he entered the Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, however his role was short lived when he was forced to resign on May 19, 2005 after calling for Members of the Scottish Parliament to be abolished. [2] He is the chairman of the all party group on multiple sclerosis.

His local constituency campaigns have included unsuccessfully fighting against closure of Malmesbury Hospital, opposition to the closure of RAF Lyneham airbase (announced in 2003 and planned for 2012) and opposition to possible closure of Chippenham hospital. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

[edit] Family life and scandal

Gray married Sarah Ann Beale in 1980 and they have two sons and a daughter.

His marriage broke up in 2006, after it emerged he was having an affair with a married woman, Phillipa Mayo, while his wife was fighting breast cancer. [3]. Gray met Mrs Mayo, who is Director of the Campaign for Hunting at the Countryside Alliance whilst organising Conservative opposition to the hunting bill.

Mrs Mayo's husband wrote to the local paper the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, saying 'The irony is that I will not reap the benefits of Mr [David] Cameron's excellent family-based policy proposals because one of his own MPs has ripped my own family apart.' In light of the scandal, the local Conservative party subsequently balloted their members in January 2007 to decide whether to reselect James Gray as their parliamentary candidate at the next election. [4]. James Gray won this ballot by an undisclosed margin and hence was reselected as the Conservative candidate for North Wiltshire.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Richard Needham		 Member of Parliament for North Wiltshire
1997 – present		 Incumbent

[edit] Publications

  • Financial Risk Management in the Shipping Industry by James Gray, 1986 Fairplay Publications ISBN 0-905045-89-0
  • Futures and Options for Shipping by James Gray, 1987, LLP Professional Publishing ISBN 1-85044-136-7
  • Shipping Futures by James Gray, 1990, LLP Professional Publishing ISBN 1-85044-322-X

[edit] References

  1. ^ Biography at jamesgray.org. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
  2. ^ Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, 10 November, 2005. Hospital plan will turn the clock back. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
  3. ^ Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, 26 January, 2006. Sad end to an era as ward is closed. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
  4. ^ Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, 23 March, 2006. Let battle commence. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
  5. ^ BBC News, 4 July, 2003. Angry reaction to Lyneham closure. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
  6. ^ Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, 23 March, 2006. MP tells of closure fears for hospital. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.

[edit] External links