Vaizey Edward
Edward Henry Butler Vaizey MP (born 5 June 1968) is HM Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State post with responsibilities in both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). He was promoted to Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, with responsibility for digital industries in the reshuffle on 15th July 2014.
Vaizey was elected Conservative MP for the constituency of Wantage at the 2005 General Election, and was re-elected in the 2010 General Election. A qualified barrister, he is a regular media columnist and commentator.
Political Career
In 2002, Vaizey was selected by Wantage Conservative Association to be its candidate for the 2005 General Election, to succeed Robert Jackson, who subsequently crossed the floor to Labour. Vaizey won a two-thirds majority on the final ballot of members. He was elected as an MP in that election, with 22,394 votes. His majority was 8,017 over the Liberal Democrats. This represented 43% of the voters and a 1.9% swing from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives.
When first elected to parliament, Vaizey was a member of the Standing Committee on the Consumer Credit Bill. Before being appointed to the front bench he was a member of the Modernisation and Environmental Audit Select Committees and was Deputy Chairman of the Conservative's Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group.
In November 2006, Vaizey was appointed to the Conservative front bench as a Shadow Minister for Culture, looking after Arts and Broadcasting policy. In the 2010 General Election he received a vote of 29,284, which was 52% of the votes cast, gaining him an increased majority. While many senior members of the Conservative Party were in negotiations with the Lib Dems in the days after 6 May 2010, Vaizey appeared regularly on television to be interviewed as a representative of Conservative Party views at that time.
Education
Vaizey is the son of the late Lord Vaizey, a Life Peer, and Marina Vaizey, the well-known art historian. His family hails from Essex. Vaizey spent part of his childhood growing up in Berkshire. He was educated at St Paul's School and Merton College, Oxford, where he rose to the rank of Librarian (Vice President) of the Oxford Union and took a BA in History, achieving a 2.1. After leaving Oxford, Vaizey worked for the Conservative politicians Kenneth Clarke and Michael Howard as an adviser on employment and education issues. He practised as a barrister for several years, specialising in Family Law and Child Care.
