Tim Boswell

Timothy Eric "Tim" Boswell, Baron Boswell of Aynho (born 2 December 1942) is an English Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Daventry from 1987 until he retired at the 2010 general election.

Personal life

Education

The son of a farmer, Tim Boswell was educated at Marlborough College and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Classics and a diploma in agricultural economics.

Family

Boswell is married to Helen Delahay Rees and they have three daughters. Within his former constituency are Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix; Althorp, the childhood home of Diana, Princess of Wales and her brother the Earl Spencer; and Thenford, the village of the mansion home of Michael Heseltine.

Political career

Conservative Party

He joined the Conservative Research Department in 1966, becoming head of the economics section in 1974. He stood for Parliament at the February 1974 general election in Rugby but lost by 6,154 votes to Labour's William Price.

He was elected as the Treasurer of the Daventry Conservative Association in 1976 and subsequently its Chairman from 1979-1983. He became a political advisor to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Michael Jopling for two years from 1984.

Parliamentary career

Boswell was chosen to contest the Daventry constituency after the sitting Conservative MP and former Labour Cabinet member Reg Prentice had announced his retirement. Tim Boswell was elected as the Conservative MP for Daventry at the 1987 general election with a majority of 19,690 and held the seat very comfortably since.

Tim Boswell's Westminster career began unsurprisingly as a Member of the Agriculture Select Committee in 1987. He became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury Peter Lilley in 1989. Tim Boswell entered John Major's government in 1990 as an Assistant Government Whip, following the 1992 General Election he was promoted within the Whip's Office and became a Lord Commissioner to the Treasury.

In December 1992, Tim Boswell was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and moved in the same position at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food until the Major government fell at the 1997 General Election.

In opposition Boswell was a spokesman on the Treasury in the immediate aftermath of the 1997 election defeat and became a spokesman on Trade and Industry under William Hague, before speaking on Education and Employment in 1999 until after the 2001 General Election. He became the spokesman for Work and Pensions under the leadership of Iain Duncan Smith, moving briefly to speak on Constitutional Affairs in 2003 under Michael Howard and back to Work and Pensions in 2004, where he remains following the 2005 General Election.

On 31 March 2006, Boswell announced his intention not to contest the subsequent general election, provided it did not take place unexpectedly soon. The Daventry seat was split in two at the 2010 general election, with the northern portion becoming part of a new Daventry constituency and the southern part becoming part of a South Northamptonshire constituency.

In May 2009, he was listed by The Telegraph as one of the "Saints" in the expenses scandal.^[1]

After his retirement from the House of Commons the seat remained Conservative under Chris Heaton-Harris.

He was raised to the House of Lords in 2010. In May 2012, he was made Principal Deputy Chairman of Committees in the House, and Chairman of the European Union Committee.^[2][3]

References

External links

• ePolitix.com - Tim Boswell MP
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Tim Boswell
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Tim Boswell MP
• Profile on Conservative Party website
• Daventry Conservatives
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Tim Boswell MP
• The Public Whip - Tim Boswell MP voting record
• BBC News - Tim Boswell profile 15 February 2005