About David

I have served as the Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds since 1997. The main towns in the constituency are Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket and Needham Market and it also includes many villages going as far east from Bury St Edmunds as the A140.

As your MP I have had a very simple principle: to take on anybody in authority – whether it be in Whitehall, Westminster, the County Council, the Borough Council, the District Council, the bus companies, the rail companies, the water companies or, indeed, any other utility on behalf of my constituents. I like to get things done! I do not always succeed, no MP does, but I will always give 100% effort.

Why Did I Enter Politics?
My family taught me the importance of public service, which is why I entered politics. My father worked in local government for various councils, including the Gipping Rural District Council in Needham Market. My mother was a full time carer for my grandfather who was blind and deaf. My mother taught me the virtues of self reliance, compassion and personal and social responsibility. For me, becoming a Member of Parliament was the best way to make a difference to society and try to improve the quality of life for everybody.

On leaving grammar school I went to Cambridge University then practised as a solicitor dealing with banks and many small businesses. At the beginning of the 1990s I was headhunted by the Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke, QC MP – to be a trouble shooter in the Department of Education and Science and to keep a keen eye on his civil servants. I did this job for the same Cabinet Minister at the Home Office (1992-93) and then when he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in May 1993 until 1996. I was his Chief Special Adviser at the Treasury- a period when most acknowledge Ken Clarke got the British economy into the best shape for a generation. He left a golden economic legacy to Mr Blair's Government.

I won the 1997 General Election as the candidate for Bury St Edmunds, achieving the lowest Labour “swing” against me of any Conservative held seat in the whole of the United Kingdom - something I am proud of! Especially as many much safer Tory seats fell to Blair's Labour Party. The majority of 368 came after a recount. I increased my majority to 2,503 in 2001. In 2005, I increased it to 9,930 and in 2010 it increased again to 12,380.

Your LOCAL MP, and your NATIONAL Representative

I have campaigned for more rural bobbies on the beat; against concreting over our green fields with unnecessary house building; for the preservation of the rural post office network in the face of Government policy and for high quality local health services, including the excellent West Suffolk Hospital and St Nicholas’ Hospice in Bury St Edmunds.

I am a campaigning community politician: I am a Patron of the local West Suffolk Voluntary Association for the Blind, the West Suffolk Alzheimer’s Society, the Bury St Edmunds Town Trust, the Suffolk Deaf Association, the Bury St Edmunds and District Football League and the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds.

As well as taking Suffolk’s views and problems to Westminster, I also take an active part in national issues. I served on the Treasury Select Committee, the most influential in Parliament, from 1999 until March 2004 and got a national reputation for taking on Gordon Brown in head to head exchanges on tax and spending.

I then served on the Conservative front bench as Treasury Whip in Her Majesty’s Opposition Whips Office between March 2004 and July 2005 – this involved me managing detailed legislative scrutiny. Between December 2005 and July 2007 I was Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform. Between July 2007 and May 2010 I was Shadow Minister for Police Reform.

In October 2010 I was unanimously elected by the Conservative colleagues in the Commons to serve on the Treasury Select Committee. Our scrutiny is vital in ensuring the Government's economic and financial policy is effective. If it isn't we say so. In 2011 we are doing reports on the structure of banking and economic growth - both crucial to the success of this country.

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About David

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