John Stanley (politician)

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

Sir John Paul Stanley (born January 12, 1942) is a British politician, and Conservative Member of Parliament for Tonbridge and Malling.

[edit] Early life

He was educated at Repton School, Copthorne Prep School and studied Modern History at Lincoln College, Oxford. He also studied at Syracuse University. He was at the Institute for Strategic Studies from 1968-9. He worked for Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp Ltd (RTZ) from 1969-79.

He contested the Newton seat in 1970. He was first elected to Parliament at the first 1974 election, prior to which he had worked for the Conservative Research Department as an advisor on housing policy. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Thatcher from 1976 to 1979, during her time as Leader of the Opposition.

He was made Minister of State with responsibility for Housing at the Department of Environment upon the Conservative's victory at the 1979 general election. He then was moved sideway to become Minister of State for the Armed forces in the Ministry of Defence, serving until 1987. Stanley was then moved to the Northern Ireland Office, once again as Minister of State, but left the government payroll the following year. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1984 and is mainly interested in defence and foreign policy, having sat on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee since 1992.