Brian Mawhinney

Infobox Politician


honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
name =The Lord Mawhinney, PC
birth_date = birth date and age|1940|07|26
birth_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland
office = Shadow Home Secretary
term_start = 11 June 1997
term_end = 11 April 1998
leader = William Hague
predecessor = Jack Straw
successor = Norman Fowler
office2 = Chairman of the Conservative Party
term_start2 = 5 July 1995
term_end2 = 2 May 1997
primeminister2 = John Major
predecessor2 = Jeremy Hanley
successor2 = Cecil Parkinson
office3 = Secretary of State for Transport
term_start3 = 20 July 1994
term_end3 = 5 July 1995
predecessor3 = John MacGregor
successor3 = Sir George Young, 6th Baronet
party = Conservative

Brian Stanley Mawhinney, Baron Mawhinney PC (born 26 July 1940)cite web |title =Sir Brian Mawhinney | publisher = BBC News | date =2002-10-18 | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2061231.stm | accessdate =2008-04-23 ] is a British Conservative Party politician. He was a member of the Cabinet from 1994 until 1997 and a Member of Parliament from 1979 until 2005.

Early life

Mawhinney was born in 1940 in Belfast and was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.cite news | title=Mawhinney, Brian |publisher=Guardian Media Group |url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/parliament/0,,-3433,00.html |accessdate=2008-04-23] He studied physics at Queen's University of Belfast, gaining an upper second class degree in 1963 and obtained a Ph.D. in radiation physics at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He worked as assistant professor of radiation research at the University of Iowa from 1968–70 and then returned to the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine as a lecturer from 1970–84.

Political career

Mawhinney was Member of Parliament for Peterborough from 1979 to 1997 and Member of Parliament for North West Cambridgeshire from 1997 to 2005. [cite news |title=…with 27 new working peers… |publisher=Telegraph Media Group |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/14/nlords114.xml |accessdate=2008-04-23] He was PPS to John Wakeham from 1982 to 1983 and PPS to Tom King from 1984 to 1986. He became a junior minister at the Northern Ireland Office in 1986, and then became Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office in 1990. In 1992, he became Minister of State at the Department of Health until 1994 when he entered the cabinet as Secretary of State for Transport. He served as Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio for two years from 1995 until the 1997 election. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the dissolution honours list in 1997. He served as Shadow Home Secretary and spokesman for home, constitutional and legal affairs for a year under William Hague before returning to the back benches in June 1998. He stepped down from the House of Commons in May 2005. [cite news|title=Mawhinney to leave Parliament|date=30 September 2003|publisher=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3152112.stm|accessdate=2007-12-21] [cite news|title=End of Commons road for four MPs |date=2005-04-10|publisher=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/england/4430979.stm|accessdate=2007-08-04] On 13 May 2005 it was announced that he would be created a life peer, [cite news|title=Full list of new life peers |date=2005-05-13|publisher=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4544507.stm|accessdate=2007-08-04] and on 24 June he was created Baron Mawhinney, of Peterborough, in the County of Cambridgeshire. [cite news|title=Life baronies |date=2005-08-06|publisher=The Times| url= http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/the_hitch/article552069.ece|accessdate=2007-08-04]

The Football League

In 2003, he was appointed Chairman of The Football League, [cite news|title=Mawhinney handed top post|date=2002-12-19|publisher=BBC Sport|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/2587671.stm|accessdate=2007-08-04] and in 2004 oversaw a re-organisation of the league structure, renaming the former Division One as the Football League Championship. Mawhinney has gained notoriety for presiding over the Football League's unprecedented 30 point deduction imposed upon Luton Town in 2008. As a result the Football League board are deeply unpopular with Luton Town fans. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/luton_town/7500435.stm BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Luton | Luton to face 30-point deduction ] ]

Personal life

Highly religious, Mawhinney is a leading member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and was a member of the General Synod for five years.

References

ee also

* List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords
* List of Northern Ireland members of the Privy Council