| The Right Honourable Sir John Stanley MP |
|
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Tonbridge and Malling |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 28 February 1974 |
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| Preceded by | Constituency Created |
| Majority | 18,178 (35.4%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 January 1942 Marylebone, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Giles |
| Alma mater | Lincoln College, Oxford |
Sir John Paul Stanley PC (born 12 January 1942) is a British Conservative Party politician, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tonbridge and Malling.
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Stanley was educated at two independent schools: at Copthorne Preparatory School near Crawley in West Sussex and Repton School in the village of Repton in Derbyshire, followed by Lincoln College at the University of Oxford, where he read Modern History. He also studied at Syracuse University.
Stanley was at the Institute for Strategic Studies from 1968 to 1969. He worked for Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp Ltd (RTZ) from 1969 to 1979.
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 the Environment following the Conservative victory at the 1979 general election. Four years later he was moved to become Minister of State for the Armed Forces in the Ministry of Defence. Following the 1987 general election Stanley was moved to the Northern Ireland Office, once again as Minister of State, but left the government front bench in 1988 and has remained on the back benches since.
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.
He was re-adopted as the Conservative party candidate for his constituency in 2008 for the 2010 general election, when he was 68 years old.
He married Susan Giles on 21 December 1968 in the City of London. They have a son and daughter.