John MacGregor, Baron MacGregor of Pulham Market

Infobox Politician


honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
name = John MacGregor
honorific-suffix = Baron MacGregor of Pulham Market, PC
birth_date = birth date and age|1937|02|14
birth_place = London, UK
office = Secretary of State for Transport
term_start = 11 April 1992
term_end = 20 July 1994
primeminister = John Major
predecessor = Malcolm Rifkind
successor = Brian Mawhinney
office2 = Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council
term_start2 = 2 November 1990
term_end2 = 11 April 1992
primeminister2 = Margaret Thatcher
John Major
predecessor2 = Geoffrey Howe
successor2 = Tony Newton
office3 = Secretary of State for Education and Science
term_start3 = 24 July 1989
term_end3 = 2 November 1990
predecessor3 = Kenneth Baker
successor3 = Kenneth Clarke
office4 = Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
term_start4 = 13 June 1987
term_end4 = 24 July 1989
predecessor4 = Michael Jopling
successor4 = John Gummer
office5 = Chief Secretary to the Treasury
term_start5 = 2 September 1985
term_end5 = 13 June 1987
predecessor5 = Peter Rees
successor5 = John Major
party = Conservative

John Roddick Russell MacGregor, Baron MacGregor of Pulham Market, OBE PC FKC (born February 14, 1937), is a politician in the United Kingdom. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School, then at the University of St Andrews and at King's College London.

He was Conservative MP for Norfolk South, but stepped down in the 2001 election.

Member of Parliament

He became MP in the February 1974 General Election, and served as a Tory whip from 1977 to 1981, when he became a junior minister at the Department of Trade and Industry, then moved in 1983 to MAFF.

In government

He entered the Cabinet on 2 September 1985 as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and in 1987, he was made Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food - during the BSE crisis. He was promoted to Secretary of State for Education and Science in July 1989. In the small reshuffle following the resignation of Sir Geoffrey Howe, he was made Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council just days before Thatcher's own resignation. He continued in this position from 1990 to 1992. He was made Secretary of State for Transport in 1992, remaining in the post until July 1994 when he left the cabinet. He was made a life peer as Baron MacGregor of Pulham Market, of Pulham Market in the County of Norfolk on 5 July, 2001.

Personal life

atire

On the satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image he was always shown wearing a brown paper bag over his head, partly as a gimmick to make himself less anonymous but also because the programme makers didn't have a puppet of him. The stock joke was for him to say, "It makes me more exciting. People will look at me and say, 'Ooooh look, there goes exciting John MacGregor. He looks very exciting, he has a brown paper bag over his head."