Robert Goodwill

Infobox MP
honorific-prefix =
name = Robert Goodwill
honorific-suffix =

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caption =
constituency_MP = Scarborough and Whitby
parliament =
term_start = 5 May 2005
term_end =
majority = 1,245 (2.7%)
predecessor = Lawrie Quinn
successor =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1956|12|31|df=yes
birth_place = North Yorkshire
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
spouse = Maureen Short
party = Conservative
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater = Newcastle University
occupation =
profession =
religion =


website =
footnotes =

Robert Goodwill (born 31 December 1956) is a British politician and farmer. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Scarborough and Whitby.

Early life

Robert Goodwill was born in North Yorkshire and was educated at the Quaker Bootham School in York, and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture in 1979. He is a farmer of 250 acres of mainly arable land near Malton which has been in his family since 1850. He has been the managing director of [http://www.mowthorpe.co.uk Mowthorpe (UK) Ltd] since 1995 which offers environmentally friendly burials in the North Yorkshire countryside [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/7days/story/0,,1890215,00.html] .

Parliamentary career

He unsuccessfully contested Redcar at the 1992 General Election where he finished second, some 11,577 votes behind the sitting Labour MP Mo Mowlam. In 1994 he unsuccessfully contested Cleveland and Richmond constituency at the European Parliamentary elections. He again attempted to enter the British parliament at the 1997 General Election when he was selected for the marginally held Conservative seat of Leicestershire North West following the deselectionFact|date=October 2007 of the sitting MP David Ashby. Goodwill was defeated by Labour's David Taylor by 13,219 votes. In 1998, he contested the South Yorkshire by-election for the European Parliament, but was again defeated. He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament at the 1999 European Parliament Election for the Yorkshire and the Humber seat, he served in Brussels and Strasbourg until 2004. He was Deputy Leader of the Conservative MEPs up to the 2004 European Election. He was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 General Election for Scarborough and Whitby, gaining the seat from Labour's Lawrie Quinn by just 1,245 votes. He made his maiden speech on 6 June 2005, [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm050606/debtext/50606-22.htm#50606-22_spnew6] in which he boasted that his constituency is the setting for both the Yorkshire Television series "Heartbeat" at Goathland; and that the North Yorkshire Moors Railway has been used for the Hogwarts Express in the "Harry Potter" films. After spending 18 months as a member of the transport select committee, he was appointed a whip by David Cameron in 2006 and promoted to the post of shadow roads minister in the transport team in 2007.

Personal life

He married Maureen Short in November 1987 in North Yorkshire and they have two sons (born May 1989 and June 1991) and a daughter (born May 1994). He was once the chairman of the cereals and livestock committee of the North Yorkshire National Farmers Union 1986-8. He takes a keen interest in steam engine and owns several, he once brought an engine back from the former Czechoslovakia to restore it. He also speaks French, German and some Russian.

External links

* [http://www.robertgoodwill.co.uk Robert Goodwill MP] official site
* [http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.person.page&personID=81440 Robert Goodwill MP] biography at the site of the Conservative Party
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-9348,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Robert Goodwill MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/robert_goodwill/scarborough_and_whitby TheyWorkForYou.com - Robert Goodwill MP]
* [http://publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Robert_Goodwill&mpc=Scarborough+%26amp%3B+Whitby The Public Whip - Robert Goodwill MP] voting record
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/504.stm BBC Politics page]

News items

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5053682.stm The European People's Party in June 2006]