John Henry Hayes

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For other persons named John Hayes, see John Hayes (disambiguation).

John Henry Hayes (born 23 June 1958) British politician. He is Conservative Member of Parliament for South Holland and The Deepings, and Chairman of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group.

John Hayes was born in Woolwich, London and was educated at the Colfe's School in Lewisham and the University of Nottingham where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in history and English. He has been the director of the information technology company, Beta Base Ltd in Nottingham since 1983.

He was elected as a councillor to the Nottinghamshire County Council in 1985 and served for twelve years before he stood down following his election to parliament. He contested Derbyshire North East at the 1987 general election but was defeated by the new Labour MP Harry Barnes by 3,720 votes. He fought the same seat at the 1992 general election and he finished some 6,270 votes behind Barnes. He was elected to the House of Commons for the new Lincolnshire seat of South Holland and The Deepings at the 1997 general election. He secured a majority of 7,991 and has been elected with increasing majorities since. He made his maiden speech on July 2, 1997.

In parliament he served on the agriculture, fisheries and food select committee for two years from 1997 and two years on the education and employment committee from 1998. In 1999 he was appointed as a vice chairman of the Conservative Party by William Hague, and in 2000 joined the frontbench as a spokesman on education and skills. He was made an Opposition Whip by Iain Duncan Smith in 2001, before entering his shadow cabinet as the shadow Agriculture Secretary in 2002. He was dropped from the shadow cabinet in 2003 by the new leader, Michael Howard, and was appointed as a spokesman for local and devolved government. He was briefly a spokesman on transport following the 2005 general election before being moved by David Cameron later in 2005 to again speak on education and skills and in particular on vocational education. He is the chairman of the all party group on disability and secretary of the all party group on brain injury.

He has been married to Susan Hopewell since 1997 and they have two sons.

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