James Gray (UK politician)

Infobox MP
honorific-prefix =
name = James Gray
honorific-suffix =

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caption =
constituency_MP = North Wiltshire
parliament =
term_start = 1 May 1997
term_end =
majority = 5,303 (9.5%)
predecessor = Richard Needham
successor =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1954|11|7|df=yes
birth_place = Scotland
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
party = Conservative
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater = University of Glasgow, Christ Church, Oxford
occupation =
profession =
religion =


website =
footnotes =

James Whiteside Gray (born November 7, 1954) is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for North Wiltshire.

Early life and career

Born in Scotland, the son of a doctor mother and a Minister of religion father (John Gray, minister at Dunblane Cathedral, and later Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1977.) He was educated at the Hillhead Primary School, Glasgow and the Glasgow High School, before studying history at the University of Glasgow where he was awarded a master's degree in 1975. He furthered his studies at Christ Church, Oxford where he completed his history thesis in 1977.

He worked as a graduate management trainee with P&O for a year until 1978 when he was appointed as a ship broker with Anderson Hughes where he remained until his appointment as the managing director of GNI Freight Futures in 1984, in which capacity he served until 1992. He was a member of the Baltic Exchange from 1978, becoming a director of the futures exchange 1989-91. From 1977 he served in the Honourable Artillery Company within the Territorial Army based in Islington for seven years. In 1978 he became a Freeman of the City of London, and was awarded the Lloyd's of London Book Prize in 1987. Biography at [http://www.jamesgray.org/Biography.htm jamesgray.org] . Retrieved on October 18, 2006.]

Prior to his election to Parliament he acted as a special advisor to the Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Howard and his successor John Gummer 1991-3, and in 1995 was a director of the lobbying firm Westminster Strategy, where he remained until his election to parliament. He also served as governor of two schools in Balham in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

Military Service

Mr Gray's military service includes seven years in the Honourable Artillery Company the oldest regiment of the Territorial Army (1977-84). He is a graduate of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme and a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies.

1992 General Election

He unsuccessfully contested the Scottish Highlands seat of Ross, Cromarty and Skye at the 1992 General Election and was defeated by the sitting Liberal Democrat MP Charles Kennedy by 7,630 votes. After the election he was elected as the vice chairman of the Tooting Conservative Association for two years in 1994.

1997 General Election

At the next election, 1997 General Election, Gray was elected to the House of Commons as MP for the Wiltshire North constituency following the retirement of the Conservative MP Richard Needham. Gray won the seat with a majority of 3,475 and has remained the MP there since. He made his maiden speech on June 11, 1997, in which he spoke of his constituency's largest town of Chippenham, and of his sadness at the massacre in his childhood home town of Dunblane. [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199798/cmhansrd/vo970611/debtext/70611-34.htm#70611-34_spnew3]

Parliamentary career

James Gray was appointed as a frontbench spokesman on education and employment by William Hague in 1999, becoming an Opposition Whip in 2000. Following the 2001 General Election he was appointed as a spokesman on defence by the new party leader Iain Duncan Smith. He was moved in 2003 by Michael Howard as the spokesman on transport and the Environment. After the 2005 General Election he entered the Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, however his role was short lived when he was forced to resign on May 19, 2005 after calling for Members of the Scottish Parliament to be abolished. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4563591.stm] He is Chairman of the All Party Groups on multiple sclerosis and the army. He currently sits on the DEFRA Select Committee.

Family life

Gray married Sarah Ann Beale in 1980 and they have two sons and a daughter. The marriage broke up in 2006, after it emerged he was having an affair with a married woman, Phillipa Mayo, while his wife was fighting breast cancer. [ [http://www.thisisswindon.co.uk/display.var.922696.0.mp_had_affair_while_wife_battled_cancer.php] ] . Gray had met Mrs Mayo, then Director of the Campaign for Hunting at the Countryside Alliance, whilst organising Conservative opposition to the hunting bill. The affair became the centre of national press attention [ [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-406434/Barrister-slams-disgraced-Tory-MP-wrecking-family.html] ] when Mrs Mayo's husband, prominent barrister Rupert Mayo [ [http://www.7br.co.uk/barristers-and-staff-profiles/Rupert-Mayo.asp] ] , wrote to the local paper the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, saying 'The irony is that I will not reap the benefits of Mr Cameron's excellent family-based policy proposals because one of his own MPs has ripped my own family apart.' [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/sep/23/uk.conservatives] ] The local Conservative party subsequently considered revoking Gray's reselection as their parliamentary candidate [ [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,,1950908,00.html] ] but decided based on a secret ballot of all party members in January 2007 to retain him as Conservative candidate for North Wiltshire [http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/jan/30/conservatives.uk] .

Publications

* "Financial Risk Management in the Shipping Industry" by James Gray, 1986 Fairplay Publications ISBN 0-905045-89-0
* "Futures and Options for Shipping" by James Gray, 1987, LLP Professional Publishing ISBN 1-85044-136-7
* "Shipping Futures" by James Gray, 1990, LLP Professional Publishing ISBN 1-85044-322-X

References

External links

* [http://www.jamesgray.org/ James Gray MP] official site
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-2037.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: James Gray MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/james_gray/north_wiltshire They Work For You - James Gray MP]