Alan Haselhurst

Infobox MP
honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
name = Sir Alan Haselhurst
honorific-suffix = MP


office = Chairman of Ways and Means
term_start = 1997
term_end =
Speaker = [Michael Martin
predecessor = Michael Morris
successor =
constituency_MP2 = Saffron Walden
parliament2 =
majority2 = 13,008 (24.5%)
predecessor2 = Sir Peter Kirk
successor2 =
term_start2 = 7 July 1977
term_end2 =
constituency_MP3 = Middleton and Prestwich
parliament3 =
majority3 =
predecessor3 = Denis Coe
successor3 = James Callaghan
term_start3 = 18 June 1970
term_end3 = 28 February 1974
birth_date = Birth date and age|1937|06|23|df=yes
birth_place = South Elmsall
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
spouse = Angela Bailey
party = Conservative
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater = Oriel College, Oxford
occupation =
profession =
religion =


website = [http://www.siralanhaselhurst.net]
footnotes =

Sir Alan Gordon Barraclough Haselhurst (born 23 June 1937) is a British politician. He is the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden. He is Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

Life before Politics

Alan Haselhurst was born in South Elmsall, near Hemsworth, Yorkshire and was educated at the King Edward VI School, Birmingham, Cheltenham College, Gloucestershire, and Oriel College, Oxford. Whilst in Oxford he was the president of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1958, and served as both the secretary and treasurer for two years with the Oxford Union from 1959. Before his election to parliament he worked in management in the chemicals industry and was a director in his family pharmacy firm. He was the chairman of Manchester Youth and Community Service from 1974 until he was re-elected to parliament.

Politics and the Conservative Party

He worked as an election agent for the Conservative MP for Hertford Robert Balniel at both the 1964 and 1966 general elections. In 1964 he became the chairman of the National Young Conservatives for two years. He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1970 General Election for the Lancashire seat of Middleton and Prestwich, defeating the Labour MP Denis Coe by 1,042 votes. Haselhurst lost the seat at the February 1974 General Election to Labour's Jim Callaghan by just 517 votes. He contested the seat again at the October 1974 General Election and lost to Callaghan by 3,714 votes. The Conservative MP for the Essex seat of Saffron Walden, Peter Kirk, died on 17 April 1977, and he was selected to contest the by-election on 7 July. Haselhurst won the seat with a majority of 12,437 and has remained the MP there since.

In parliament he served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Home Secretary Robert Carr from 1973 until his defeat at the February 1974 General Election. He also served as the PPS to the Secretary of State for Education and Science Mark Carlisle for two years from 1979. He served on the European legislation select committee for fifteen years from 1982 and was a member of the transport select committee 1992–1997. Following the 1997 General Election the Speaker of the House of Commons Betty Boothroyd appointed him as the chairman of Ways and Means (more commonly the "Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons"), and he has remained as deputy to her successor since 2000, Michael Martin.

Personal life

He married Angela Margaret Bailey on 16 April 1977, and they have two sons and a daughter. He is a very vocal supporter of community based projects and was for a time a director of Turning Point a charity working with socially excluded young people for five years from 1981. He is seen as a "wet", and is a supporter of Kenneth Clarke. He was knighted in 1995 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1999. He is the secretary of the all party group on cricket and has been an executive member of the Essex County Cricket Club since 1996.

Publications

* "Occasionally Cricket: The Unpredictable Performances of the Outcasts CC" by Alan Haselhurst, 1999, Queen Anne Press, ISBN 1-85291-622-2
* "Eventually Cricket" by Alan Haselhurst, 2001, Queen Anne Press ISBN 1-85291-637-0
* "Incidentally Cricket" by Alan Haselhurst, 2003, Queen Anne Press ISBN 1-85291-655-9

External links

* [http://www.siralanhaselhurst.net Sir Alan Haselhurst's Website]
* [http://www.saffronwaldenconservatives.com Saffron Walden Conservatives]
* [http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.person.page&personID=4663 Official Conservatives biography]
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-2284,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Alan Haselhurst MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/alan_haselhurst/saffron_walden TheyWorkForYou.com - Alan Haselhurst MP]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/497.stm BBC Politics page]

ources

*Rayment-hc