Tony Marlow

Antony Rivers Marlow (born 17 June 1940), known as Tony Marlow, is a British Conservative former Member of Parliament (MP).

Early life

Born in Greenwich, London, Marlow was educated at Wellington College, RMA Sandhurst and St Catharine's College, Cambridge.

Marlow was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1960, retiring as a Captain in 1969. During his service in Germany he commanded the (then) only amphibious bridging troop.

Parliamentary career

Before he entered the House, Marlow unsuccessfully fought Normanton in February 1974 and Rugby in October 1974. He gained Northampton North at the 1979 election, defeating the Labour MP Maureen Colquhoun.

Subsequently, he had a reliably Eurosceptic voting record, voting against the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty, as well as against the entry of Spain and Portugal into the EEC.^[1] He was one of eight Conservative MPs who had the party whip withdrawn for opposing a confidence vote, called during the debates on Maastricht Treaty. Together with other rebels, he supported an ultimately successful Labour amendment which set the level of VAT on fuel at half the government's proposed level, a rate that remains to this day.^[2]

After losing the whip for his rebellion over the Maastricht Treaty, Marlow endorsed John Redwood's unsuccessful challenge to John Major for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1995.^[3]

He was for many years Chairman of the UK Palestine All Party Group leading and organising delegations to meet Yasser Arafat and to visit Southern Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza strip. One delegation included John Major - before his ministerial career. He also led a delegation to Iraq, meeting Saddam Hussein with the consequential release of a British businessman, who had been held as a prisoner.

With Professor Alan Woodruff of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine campaigned against dog nuisance based on the dangers arising from toxicara canis, initiating the Parliamentary campaign through the introduction of a ten-minute rule bill.

He was censured by the then-speaker Betty Boothroyd for referring to Harriet Harman as a "stupid cow" during a debate about Mad Cow Disease on 25 March 1996.^[4][5]

Marlow lost his seat in the 1997 election to Labour's Sally Keeble.

References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Limited, 1997 edition.

External links

• Northampton North Conservative Association