Richard Spring, Baron Risby

Richard John Grenville Spring, Baron Risby (born 24 September 1946) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bury St Edmunds from 1992 to 1997, and for West Suffolk from 1997 to 2010. He joined the House of Lords in 2010 and is currently the British Trade Envoy to Algeria.

Parliamentary career

Spring contested Ashton-under-Lyne at the 1983 general election. He was first elected as an MP at the 1992 General Election, representing Bury St Edmunds. Spring served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sir Patrick Mayhew as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1994–95), to Tim Eggar as Minister for Trade and Industry (1995–96) and to Nicholas Soames and James Arbuthnot as Ministers of State at the Ministry of Defence (1996–97).^[1] In 1997, Spring was elected as MP for West Suffolk. He was Opposition Spokesman for Foreign Affairs between 2000 and 2004 and Shadow Minister for the Treasury between 2004 and 2005.^[2] On 23 November 2009, Spring announced that he would stand down at the 2010 general election.^[3] Between 2005 and 2010 he was a Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party, responsible for business links in the City of London. He was also Director of the British Syrian Society between 2003 and 2011, and featured on a 2012 Dispatches program on the Assad regime.^[4]

On 24 December 2010, Spring was created a life peer as Baron Risby of Haverhill in the County of Suffolk.^[5] Lord Risby sits as a Conservative in the House of Lords.^[6]

In September 2011, Risby was elected as the Vice-Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for East Asian Business. In November 2012, Lord Risby was announced as one of nine prime ministerial trade envoys, with responsibility for Algeria.^[7]

Outside Parliament

Lord Risby is currently the Chairman of the British Ukrainian Society, a post that he has held since 2007.^[8] He is also one of two patrons of the business organisation City Future, along with Sir John Major.^[9] Risby is a director of several businesses and organisations, including Hawkley Oil and Gas Ltd and Minexco Petroleum Inc, and is the president of the Combined Heat and Power Association.^[10] He is also the Deputy Chairman of the Small Business Bureau.^[11]

Personal life

Spring was born in 1946 in Cape Town, South Africa where he attended Rondebosch Boys' High School and Cape Town University. As a child he lived in the picturesque suburb of Fresnaye. He subsequently studied at the University of Cambridge. Spring then entered the City, and was a vice-president of Merrill Lynch.^[12] He married Hon. Jane Henniker-Major, daughter of John Henniker-Major, 8th Baron Henniker, in 1979 in Westminster. They divorced in 1993, having had two children.^[13]

He was widely reported to have enjoyed a three-in-a-bed romp with a friend and a Sunday School teacher in 1995.^[14]

He is a descendant of the Suffolk merchant Thomas Spring and a relation of Kenneth Spring. In 1992 he became the sixth member of the Spring family to represent a Suffolk constituency in the House of Commons, although the first for over 300 years.^[15] Spring is also a descendant of George Grenville, the Whig statesman who served as British Prime Minister in the eighteenth century.

References

External links

• ePolitix.com - Richard Spring MP
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Richard Spring MP
• Conservative Business Relations
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Richard Spring MP
• The Public Whip - Richard Spring MP voting record
• BBC News - Richard Spring - Profile
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Richard Spring