John Leslie Marshall

John Leslie Marshall (born August 19, 1940) is a British Conservative politician. He was MEP for London North from 1979 to 1989. He lost to Michael Portillo in the selection for the Enfield Southgate byelection in 1984, but was later selected for Hendon South in the London Borough of Barnet and became Member of Parliament for that seat at the 1987 general election. He served as PPS to Tony Newton, when Newton was Leader of the House of Commons.

After the 1992 election, the Boundary Commission recommended that the four Barnet seats be reduced to three. Marshall was therefore pitched together with Hartley Booth, the MP for Finchley, in trying to win the nomination for the new seat of Finchley and Golders Green. Both MPs put a great deal of effort into the fight, hiring minibuses to ensure all their supporters got to the selection meeting; the contest became bitter when Booth accused Marshall of "signing up the dead and the dying" as Conservative members in order to boost his chances [Guardian Diary, October 20, 1995] .

Despite most of the new constituency coming from Hartley Booth's old seat, Marshall won the selection contest on November 1, 1995, but went on to lose the seat unexpectedly to Labour candidate Rudi Vis in the 1997 election. In May 1998 Marshall was elected to Barnet Council for a ward in his old constituency and following the Conservative victory in local elections in 2002, he has served in the Cabinet. He is currently Cabinet Member for Investment in Learning, responsible for implementing the Primary Schools rebuilding programme (known as PSCIP), and the Libraries Strategy, which is modernising library provision across the Borough. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the leadership of the Conservative group in 2005.

John Marshall will be Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet in the Municipal Year 2008-2009, following a unanimous vote at the March 2008 Council Meeting, when the future Mayor is nominated.

References

* Times Guide to the House of Commons 1997, ed. by Tim Austin