James Arbuthnot: Difference between revisions

James Norwich Arbuthnot, PC (born August 4, 1952) is a British politician. He is the British Member of Parliament for Hampshire North-East and is a member of the Conservative Party and current Parliamentary Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel.

James Arbuthnot was born in Deal, Kent, the son of Sir John Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet, he was educated at Wellesley House School in Broadstairs, Eton College (Captain of School), and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a law degree in 1974. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1975 and became a practising barrister. He was elected as a councillor to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 1978 and remained a councillor until his election in 1987. In 1980 he became the vice-chairman of the Chelsea Conservative Association. He fought the futile seat of Cynon Valley in the Labour heartland in industrial South Wales valleys at the 1983 General Election and was unsurprisingly hammered by Ioan Evans. A year later in 1984, Evans died and Arbuthnot again fought the by-election; he was again defeated by the Labour candidate Ann Clwyd.

At the 1987 General Election, Arbuthnot was chosen to fight the safe Conservative seat of Wanstead and Woodford as the sitting MP, Patrick Jenkin, was standing down. Wanstead and Woodford was the former constituency of Winston Churchill. Arbuthnot held the seat comfortably.

In 1988 he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Archie Hamilton at the Ministry of Defence, and in 1990 became the PPS to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Peter Lilley. He entered the John Major government after the 1992 General Election when he was made an Assistant Government Whip. He was promoted in 1994 as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security. The following year he was promoted to Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence. He remained in office until the collapse of the Major government.

Arbuthnot's seat of Wanstead and Woodford was abolished at the 1997 general election, and he found a new seat in the form of Hampshire North East. He was a member of William Hague's Shadow Cabinet as the Party's Chief Whip until the 2001 general election when he returned to the fold as a backbencher. He was made a Member of the Privy Council in 1998. Arbuthnot returned to the Shadow Cabinet under Michael Howard Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary in 2003 and stood down after the 2005 General Election. Since the election he has served as the chairman of the influential Defence Committee.

He is a direct descendant from King James I and is heir to the baronetcy currently held by his older brother, Sir William Arbuthnot. He plays the guitar, enjoys cycling and no longer flies light aircraft. He is married and has one son and three daughters.

• United Kingdom House of Commons

• ePolitix - James Arbuthnot MP official site
• North East Hampshire Conservative Association
• Guardian Unlimited Politics Ask Aristotle - James Arbuthnot MP
• Voting record
• They Work For You - James Arbuthnot MP
• Arbuthnot family tree