Richard Shepherd

Infobox MP
honorific-prefix =
name = Richard Shepherd
honorific-suffix = MP


caption = Richard Shepherd photographed in September 2007
constituency_MP = Aldridge-Brownhills
parliament =
term_start = 3 May 1979
term_end =
majority = 5,507 (13.9%)
predecessor = Geoffrey Edge
successor =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1942|12|6|df=yes
birth_place = Aberdeen, Scotland
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
spouse =
party = Conservative
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater = London School of Economics
occupation =
profession =
religion =


website =
footnotes =

Richard Charles Scrimgeour Shepherd (born 6 December 1942) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Shepherd was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and educated at Isleworth Grammar School (now Isleworth and Syon School) on "Ridgeway Road" in Isleworth and at the London School of Economics receiving a BSc in Economics, where he studied with and became a friend of Robert Kilroy-Silk. At the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, he received an MSc in Economics. He was a director of the retail food businesses [http://www.partridges.co.uk Partridges] of Sloane Street and Shepherd Foods in London, then was an underwriter at Lloyd's of London from 1974-94.

Parliamentary career

He contested Nottingham East in February 1974. He was formerly an assistant to Sir Teddy Taylor and has been Member of Parliament for Aldridge-Brownhills since 1979. He was selected as Backbencher of the Year in 1985 and the Spectator's Parliamentarian of the Year in 1995, and in 1989, he was identified by a Mori poll of his fellow MPs to be one of the ten most effective MPs currently sitting in Parliament. He takes no notice of his party Whips, always voting how he wants.

One of the biggest moments of Shepherd's career occurred in 1988 when he introduced his Protection of Official Information Bill [http://www.cfoi.org.uk/whistle.html] which was to replace parts of the Official Secrets Act. The government introduced a three line whip, a rare move at the time, which called on its MPs to vote against the bill, introduced by one of their own. This brought considerable debate at the time both in parliament and the media. It was defeated.

He was one of the Maastricht rebels and is known to have libertarian leanings. He had close links to fellow Maastricht rebels Nicholas Budgen and Christopher Gill, even giving the eulogy at Budgen's funeral at Lichfield Cathedral.

Personal life

He is single. He has been President of Walsall Football Club.

External links

* [http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.person.page&personID=5116 Conservatives.com - Richard Shepherd MP] official biography
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-4730,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Richard Shepherd MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/richard_shepherd/aldridge-brownhills They WorkForYou.com - Richard Shepherd MP]
* [http://www.aldridgebrownhills.org.uk Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association] Conservative constituency association
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/8.stm BBC Politics page]