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Robert Gurth Hughes (born 14 July 1951) is a British Conservative Party politician, who was a Government Minister in the 1990s.
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Robert Gurth Hughes (born 14 July 1951) is a British Conservative Party politician, who was a Government Minister in the 1990s.
Hughes was unsuccessful as a candidate for Stepney and Poplar in the 1979 general election. In 1980 Hughes was elected to the Greater London Council representing Croydon Central, serving until 1986. He was the Conservative candidate in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election [1] and contested that constituency's successor seat of Southwark and Bermondsey at the 1983 general election.
In 1987 he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow West. He successfully defended his seat at the 1992 election but at the 1997 election his 18,000 majority swung to a Labour majority of 1,240 votes for Gareth Thomas. [2] Hughes' Parliamentary Aide in the Commons until May 1997 was fellow Harrow politician, Councillor Mark Versallion. [3]
He served as a Government Whip in 1993 when the Maastricht bill went through the House, and was promoted to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Office of Public Service and Science in the Cabinet Office in 1994 with responsibility for the Science Research Councils and the Medical Research Council.
On 6 March 1995, Hughes resigned as Minister responsible for the Citizen's Charter over an affair with a constituency worker who had come to him for help from an abusive relationship. Hughes confessed the affair and resigned when he believed that the liaison was about to be exposed in a Sunday newspaper. [4] [5]
He opposed the Conservative party line in 1996 by supporting a total ban on handguns in the wake of the Dunblane Massacre. [6] [7] [8] Robert Hughes is a keen supporter of Land value tax to eliminate income and sales taxes.
Upon leaving the Commons he became General Secretary and then Executive Director of the optical trade body, the Federation of Ophthalmic & Dispensing Opticians. He became the Chief Executive of the Association of Optometrists (AOP) in 2004. In 2011 he left AOP to become the Chief Executive of the Surrey Association for Visual Impairment. As of 2017 he is now the Chairman of the Guildford Conservative Association.
In May 2021 he was elected as a Conservative county councillor for Shere in the Surrey County Council election. [9]
Sir Simon Henry Ward Hughes is a British former politician. He is now the Chancellor of London South Bank University, and a strategic adviser to Talgo, a Spanish manufacturer of trains. Hughes was deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2010 to 2014, and from 2013 until 2015 was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark from 1983 until 2015. He declined a position in the House of Lords in 2015.
Gareth Richard Thomas is a British Labour politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow West since 1997. He is currently Shadow Minister for Trade on the Opposition frontbench. Thomas served as Minister of State for International Development and Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Consumer Affairs between 2008 and 2010. He was the Chair of the Co-operative Party from 2001 until 2019, and stands for election as a Labour and Co-operative candidate.
The Borough of Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. With around half of the borough's population, Guildford is its largest settlement and only town, and is where the council is based.
North Southwark and Bermondsey was a parliamentary constituency which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The constituency was created for the 1997 general election.
A by-election was held in the Bermondsey constituency in South London, on 24 February 1983, following the resignation of Labour MP Bob Mellish. Peter Tatchell stood as the candidate for the Labour Party, and Simon Hughes stood for the Liberal Party. Following a bitter campaign, the Liberals made huge gains and took the seat, with a majority of votes cast. Labour's vote fell from 63.6 per cent in May 1979 to 26.1 per cent as Tatchell came a distant second, while the Conservative candidate, Robert Hughes, managed only fourth place, losing his deposit. With a swing of 44.2%, the 1983 Bermondsey by-election remains the largest by-election swing in British political history.
Surrey Heath is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Al Pinkerton, a Liberal Democrat. The Home counties suburban constituency is in the London commuter belt, on the outskirts of Greater London. Surrey Heath is in the north west of Surrey and borders the counties of Berkshire and Hampshire.
Woking is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Will Forster, a Liberal Democrat. Since it was first created for the 1950 general election, it had only ever returned Conservative Party candidates until it elected a Liberal Democrat for the first time in 2024.
Anne Frances Milton is a former British politician and lobbyist who served as Minister of State for Skills and Apprenticeships from 2017 to 2019. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Guildford from 2005 to 2019. Elected as a Conservative, she had the whip removed in September 2019 and subsequently sat as an independent politician.
The region of Greater London, including the City of London, is divided into 73 parliamentary constituencies which are sub-classified as borough constituencies, affecting the type of electoral officer and level of expenses permitted.
Guildford Borough Council in Surrey, England is elected every four years.
The Peace Party is a minor political party in the United Kingdom, founded in Surrey in 1996, campaigning mainly for pacifist and environmentalist issues. Its leader John Morris had stood at every general election since 1997.
Bermondsey and Old Southwark is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Since 2015, it has been represented by Neil Coyle, who was elected as a Labour MP but was suspended from the party from 2022 to 2023 following an accusation of racism.
Paddington South was a Parliamentary constituency in London which returned one Member of Parliament. It was a compact urban area, but predominantly wealthy, and was most famously represented by Lord Randolph Churchill during the latter part of his career.
Sean Francis Hughes was a British history teacher and Labour politician. He was the local successor to Sir Harold Wilson as a Member of Parliament, and served as a whip and a spokesman on defence issues for his party. Respected for his Parliamentary abilities and able to use his historical knowledge in Parliamentary speeches, he played a role in changing Labour's defence policy from unilateral nuclear disarmament to a multilateral approach. His Parliamentary career was cut short by his early death from cancer.
Mark Anthony Gaius Versallion is a British politician, businessman, and officer in the Royal Naval Reserve. He was the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Stretford and Urmston from 2007 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2011 was Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Forum of the Conservative Party. Since 2011 he has been a member of Central Bedfordshire unitary authority.
Harold James Glanville was an English businessman and Liberal Party politician.
The Guildford Greenbelt Group is a small political party within the United Kingdom which seeks to preserve the green belt surrounding Guildford in Surrey.
The 2019 Guildford Borough Council election were held on 2 May 2019, to elect all 48 seats to the Guildford Borough Council in Surrey, England as part of the 2019 local elections.
Angela Joy Richardson is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Guildford since 2019. She has served as a Deputy Chairwoman of the Conservative Party since 26 March 2024.
The 2023 Guildford Borough Council election was held on 4 May 2023, to elect all 48 seats to the Guildford Borough Council in Surrey, England as part of the 2023 local elections. The results saw the Liberal Democrat take overall control of Guildford Borough Council.
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