Peter Ainsworth
Encyclopedia
Peter Michael Ainsworth (born 16 November 1956) is a former Conservative
politician in the United Kingdom
. He was the Member of Parliament
for East Surrey
from 1992 to 2010.
Following his retirement from politics, Peter is now the chairman of the wild flora charity Plantlife
.
officer, Ainsworth was educated at the Ludgrove School
in Wokingham
, Bradfield College
, and Lincoln College, Oxford
, from which he graduated in 1979, with an MA in English Literature and Language.
On leaving university he became a researcher to the former Conservative Member of the European Parliament
, Sir John Stewart-Clark
, and then in 1981 became a merchant bank
er. He worked as an investments analyst for Laing & Cruickshank Investment Management (bought by UBS
in 2004) from 1981-5, and then in corporate finance for S.G. Warburg Securities (bought by UBS in 1994) from 1985–92, where he became a director from 1990-2.
He married Claire Burnett in Hatfield
in 1981, with whom he has had a son (born December 1991) and two daughters (born August 1988 and July 1990).
in 1986 and at the 1992 general election
was elected to Parliament
for the seat of East Surrey, succeeding Sir Geoffrey Howe
.
In 1994 Ainsworth became the Parliamentary Private Secretary
(PPS) to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury
, Jonathan Aitken
, and in 1995 became PPS to the Secretary of State for National Heritage, Virginia Bottomley
. He was promoted by John Major
in 1996 to the Whips' Office
. When the Major government fell the following year he remained a whip in opposition and was promoted to Deputy Chief Whip by William Hague
.
On 5 January 2010, Ainsworth announced that he was to stand down at the forthcoming general election. The Conservative majority in East Surrey in 2005 was 15,921 in 2005
.
, shadowing the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
and from 2001 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
. Ainsworth resigned from Iain Duncan Smith
's frontbench for family reasons in 2002.
From 2003 he chaired the Environmental Audit Select Committee
, before rejoining the Shadow Cabinet under David Cameron
in December 2005 as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
. The post has had a heightened importance given the Conservative's new emphasis on environmental policies under Cameron.
Speaking in March 2006, Ainsworth set out the possible new direction for Conservative policy stating that "Achieving a sustainable world and combating the threat of climate change will require some really fresh ideas and radical thinking. We cannot expect to meet the challenges of this century by toying with the structures and technologies we have inherited from the past, and the concept of Decentralised Energy should to be taken seriously." Ainsworth was notable as the only member of the shadow cabinet to have voted against the war in Iraq.
Ainsworth lost his position in the Shadow Cabinet in the January 2009 reshuffle when Nick Herbert
took the post of Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
.
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. He was the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for East Surrey
East Surrey (UK Parliament constituency)
East Surrey is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
from 1992 to 2010.
Following his retirement from politics, Peter is now the chairman of the wild flora charity Plantlife
Plantlife
Plantlife is a wild plant conservation charity. As of 2007, its membership was 10,500 and it owned 23 nature reserves around the UK.-History:It was founded in 1989 with its first President being Professor David Bellamy. By 1999 it had 22 nature reserves....
.
Early life
The son of a navalRoyal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
officer, Ainsworth was educated at the Ludgrove School
Ludgrove School
Ludgrove School is an independent preparatory boarding school for about 200 boys, aged from seven or eight years to thirteen. It is situated in the civil parish of Wokingham Without, adjoining the town of Wokingham in the English county of Berkshire.-History:...
in Wokingham
Wokingham
Wokingham is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire in South East England about west of central London. It is about east-southeast of Reading and west of Bracknell. It spans an area of and, according to the 2001 census, has a population of 30,403...
, Bradfield College
Bradfield College
Bradfield College is a coeducational independent school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in 1850 by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...
, and Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
, from which he graduated in 1979, with an MA in English Literature and Language.
On leaving university he became a researcher to the former Conservative Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
, Sir John Stewart-Clark
Jack Stewart-Clark
Sir Jack Stewart-Clark was a British Member of the European Parliament . He represented the Conservative and Unionist Party in the Group of the European People's Party ....
, and then in 1981 became a merchant bank
Merchant bank
A merchant bank is a financial institution which provides capital to companies in the form of share ownership instead of loans. A merchant bank also provides advisory on corporate matters to the firms they lend to....
er. He worked as an investments analyst for Laing & Cruickshank Investment Management (bought by UBS
UBS AG
UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland...
in 2004) from 1981-5, and then in corporate finance for S.G. Warburg Securities (bought by UBS in 1994) from 1985–92, where he became a director from 1990-2.
He married Claire Burnett in Hatfield
Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It has a population of 29,616, and is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, the home of the Marquess of Salisbury, is the nucleus of the old town...
in 1981, with whom he has had a son (born December 1991) and two daughters (born August 1988 and July 1990).
Parliamentary career
He was elected as a councillor to the London Borough of WandsworthLondon Borough of Wandsworth
The London Borough of Wandsworth is a London borough in southwest London, England, and forms part of Inner London.-History:The borough was formed in 1965 from the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea and much of the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth, but...
in 1986 and at the 1992 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
was elected to Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
for the seat of East Surrey, succeeding Sir Geoffrey Howe
Geoffrey Howe
Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, CH, QC, PC is a former British Conservative politician. He was Margaret Thatcher's longest-serving Cabinet minister, successively holding the posts of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, and finally Leader of the House of Commons...
.
In 1994 Ainsworth became the Parliamentary Private Secretary
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary is a role given to a United Kingdom Member of Parliament by a senior minister in government or shadow minister to act as their contact for the House of Commons; this role is junior to that of Parliamentary Under-Secretary, which is a ministerial post, salaried by...
(PPS) to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the third most senior ministerial position in HM Treasury, after the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer . In recent years, the office holder has usually been given a junior position in the British Cabinet...
, Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan William Patrick Aitken is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, and British government minister. He was convicted of perjury in 1999 and received an 18-month prison sentence, of which he served seven months...
, and in 1995 became PPS to the Secretary of State for National Heritage, Virginia Bottomley
Virginia Bottomley
Virginia Bottomley, Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, PC, DL is a British Conservative Party politician. She was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1984 to 2005. She was raised to the peerage in 2005...
. He was promoted by John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
in 1996 to the Whips' Office
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
. When the Major government fell the following year he remained a whip in opposition and was promoted to Deputy Chief Whip by William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
.
On 5 January 2010, Ainsworth announced that he was to stand down at the forthcoming general election. The Conservative majority in East Surrey in 2005 was 15,921 in 2005
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
.
Shadow cabinet
In 1998 he entered the Shadow CabinetOfficial Opposition Shadow Cabinet (UK)
The Official Loyal Opposition Shadow Cabinet are, in British parliamentary practice, senior members of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition who scrutinise their corresponding office holders in the Government, develop alternative policies, and hold the Government to account for its actions and responses...
, shadowing the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the whole UK, such as broadcasting and internet....
and from 2001 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom...
. Ainsworth resigned from Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...
's frontbench for family reasons in 2002.
From 2003 he chaired the Environmental Audit Select Committee
Environmental Audit Select Committee
The Environmental Audit Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine how government department's policies and programmes will affect both the environment and sustainable development.-Membership:As of...
, before rejoining the Shadow Cabinet under David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
in December 2005 as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is a UK cabinet-level position in charge of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the successor to the positions of Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport...
. The post has had a heightened importance given the Conservative's new emphasis on environmental policies under Cameron.
Speaking in March 2006, Ainsworth set out the possible new direction for Conservative policy stating that "Achieving a sustainable world and combating the threat of climate change will require some really fresh ideas and radical thinking. We cannot expect to meet the challenges of this century by toying with the structures and technologies we have inherited from the past, and the concept of Decentralised Energy should to be taken seriously." Ainsworth was notable as the only member of the shadow cabinet to have voted against the war in Iraq.
Ainsworth lost his position in the Shadow Cabinet in the January 2009 reshuffle when Nick Herbert
Nick Herbert
Nicholas Le Quesne "Nick" Herbert is a British Conservative Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs...
took the post of Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is a UK cabinet-level position in charge of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the successor to the positions of Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport...
.
External links
- Peter Ainsworth MP official constituency website
- BBC News - Peter Ainsworth profile 10 February 2005
- Chairman's profile, Plantlife website