Michael Trend

Michael Trend CBE
Member of Parliament for Windsor
In office 1 May 1997 – 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Constituency Established
Succeeded by	Adam Afriyie
Majority	8,889 (21.1%)
Member of Parliament for Windsor and Maidenhead
In office 9 April 1992 – 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Alan Glyn
Succeeded by	Constituency Abolished
Personal details
Born	19 April 1952 (1952-04-19) (age 59) Greenwich
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Jill Kershaw
Alma mater	Oriel College, Oxford

Michael St John Trend, CBE (born 19 April 1952 in Greenwich) is a former Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.

Early life

He is the son of Lord Trend, the former Cabinet Secretary. He attended the independent Westminster School, then went to Oriel College, Oxford where he gained an MA in Modern History. He became a journalist for The Times Literary Supplement, History Today and The Spectator. He was chief leader writer for the Daily Telegraph from 1990-2.

Parliamentary career

He was elected at the 1992 general election as Member of Parliament for Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire. When that constituency was abolished for the 1997 election, he was returned for the new Windsor constituency.

Trend was a frontbench spokesman and Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of the Conservative Party until 2000. He was Chairman of the party's International Office until September 2005 and has done extensive democracy building work in much of the former Soviet Union and also in Africa.

Fraudulent expenses claim

In 2003 Trend was found guilty of abusing the allowances system and ordered to repay £90,277. He was briefly suspended from parliament and did not stand again at the following election. Trend claimed he "believed that I could properly continue to designate London as 'home' for the purposes of ACA, even though, in domestic terms, Windsor had become my "main residence"." It was not accepted. There was no doubt in the Standard's Committee's minds that there was no "real scope for doubt that the words "main residence" were intended to have other than their natural meaning." The Committee ruled that "Mr Trend should have recognised that, by claiming Additional Costs Allowance in relation to his Windsor home, the taxpayer was meeting some of the core running costs of what was in reality his main residence. He should have realised that this was wrong. Accordingly, we agree with the Commissioner that Mr Trend was negligent and has breached the Code of Conduct by making improper use of the Additional Costs Allowance and by failing strictly to observe the administrative rules relating to the Allowance." (Ref: Standards and Privileges - Third Report publication ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 12 February 2003).

Personal life

He has written extensively about music. He married Jill Kershaw in February 1987 in Westminster. They have a son and two daughters. For many years he was the organist of his local church.

References

External links

• They Work For You
• Ask Aristotle

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Alan Glyn	Member of Parliament for Windsor and Maidenhead 1992 – 1997	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Windsor 1997 – 2005	Succeeded by Adam Afriyie

Persondata
Name	Trend, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	19 April 1952
Place of birth	Greenwich
Date of death
Place of death