Patrick Cormack

Patrick Thomas Cormack, Baron Cormack (born May 18th 1939 in Grimsby, Lincolnshire) is a British politician, historian, journalist and author. He represented the Conservative Party as a member of parliament from 1970 to 2010.

Political Career

He contested the safe Labour parliamentary seat of Bolsover at the 1964 general election, where he lost to the sitting MP Harold Neal, who won with a majority of 23,103 votes. At the 1966 general election, Patrick Cormack contested his hometown seat of Grimsby, but again was defeated, this time by the Secretary of State for Education and Science, Anthony Crosland, who had a majority of 8,126. At the 1970 general election, Patrick Cormack stood for the seat of Cannock, and this time was elected, narrowly defeating the incumbent Labour MP Jennie Lee (the wife of the founder of the National Health Service, Aneurin Bevan). He won with a majority of 1,529. From 1970–73, Patrick served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Department of Health and Social Security. He moved constituencies at the February 1974 general election, leaving marginal seat of Cannock and instead contesting the newly drawn seat of South West Staffordshire, which he won comfortably with a majority of 9,758. He was a member of the Education Select Committee for the duration of the 1979 Parliament. On October 7th 1981, with national unemployment approaching 3,000,000 (compared to 1,500,000 two years previously), Patrick Cormack urged Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to change her economic policies, namely monetarism to tackle inflation, if Britain was to avoid economic disaster. In 1983, his constituency changed to its present incarnation, Staffordshire South, and after the 1983 general election, he became a member of the chairman's Panel. He was made a Knight Bachelor in the Queen's New Year's Honours List, 1995, for his service to parliament. In 1997, after 27 years as an MP on the backbenches, he was finally promoted by the then Leader of the Opposition, William Hague, to become the opposition's Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. He resigned from this position in 2000 in order to run for the position of Speaker of the House of Commons (following the retirement of Betty Boothroyd). However, he was unsuccessful in his bid for the Speakership, with the House instead choosing Labour MP Michael Martin for the role. During the 2005–10 parliament, Patrick Cormack was the chairman of the Northern Ireland Select Committee. The vote in Staffordshire South was postponed at the 2005 general election due to the death of the Liberal Democrat candidate Jo Harrison. When the election did take place on 23 June 2005, Patrick Cormack won comfortably. In February 2007, it was announced that he had failed to win the readoption of his constituency party for the next general election. This vote was later declared invalid as the number of votes recorded exceeded the number of people present at the meeting. In July 2007, the South Staffordshire Conservatives' executive council voted on the matter, but it resulted in a tie. Consequently, a vote of all local party members was held to decide whether Patrick Cormack should remain the party's candidate at the next general election. In the vote, held on September 14th, he was readopted as the Conservative candidate, receiving the backing of over 75% of participating party members. Patrick Cormack expressed his gratitude and called the victory a "great relief". Subsequently, on 1 December 2009, he announced his intention to stand down at the 2010 general election. Patrick Cormack was made a life peer on December 18th 2010, as Baron Cormack. He sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords. He bitterly opposed the Coalition's plans to reform the House of Lords, speaking out against them numerous times in the chamber.

Education

He was educated locally at the St James's Choir School and the Havelock School, before attending the University of Hull where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961.

External Links

Parliamentary Website for the UK House of Lords