Michael Forsyth

Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean (born October 16, 1954 in Montrose , Angus , Scotland ) is a British Conservative Party politician who was , among other things, Scotland Minister .

Life

After attending Arbroath High School , Forsyth studied at the University of St Andrews from 1972 to 1976 and was already at that time politically active as President of the Conservative Association of the University of St Andrews from 1973 to 1976, and from 1975 to 1977 as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations and from 1976 to 1977 as chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students. He then worked in local politics and was a member of Westminster City Council between 1978 and 1983 .

In the general election of June 9, 1983 , he was elected as a candidate for the Conservative Party for the first time to the House of Commons , where he represented the constituency of Stirling until May 1, 1997 . During his parliamentary membership he was first Parliamentary Private Secretary to Foreign Minister Geoffrey Howe between 1986 and 1987 , before he then took over his first government office as "Junior Minister" when he was appointed Parliamentary Undersecretary in the Scotland Ministry. During this time he was also chairman of the Scottish Conservative Party, the national association of the Conservative Party in Scotland, from 1989 to 1990.

In 1990 he became Minister of State in the Scotland Ministry, where he was responsible for health, education, social work and sport until 1992, before becoming Minister of State in the Ministry of Employment and then from 1994 to 1995 in the Home Office , the British Home Office .

As part of a cabinet reshuffle, he was in June 1995 by Prime Minister John Major to Scotland Minister ( Secretary of State for Scotland ) and thus to succeed Ian Lang . He held the office of Minister of Scotland until the end of the Majors term after losing the general election on May 1, 1997 . He himself also suffered a personal defeat in these general election and lost his constituency to his Labor Party challenger , Anne MacGuire . He lost 7.5 percentage points and around 5200 votes compared to the 1992 election.

In 1999 he was raised to the nobility as a Life Peer with the title Baron Forsyth of Drumlean , of Drumlean in Stirling, and has been a member of the House of Lords ever since . As such, he was also a member of the Commission to Strengthen Parliament between 1999 and 2000 and chairman of the Commission for Tax Reform from 2005 to 2006.

In addition, he from 2000 to 2003 member of the development committee of the National Portrait Gallery and member of the Board of J. & J. Denholm , the holding company of Denholm Group , which operates in the fields of shipping, logistics, Seafood, industrial and oilfield services is, the bank NBNK Investments plc and vice chairman of the consulting and investment service provider Evercore Partners for the area of ​​European investment banking. He is also a board member of the think tank Center for Policy Studies (CPS).

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the British Parliament (accessed December 22, 2011)
• Michael Forsyth at Hansard (English)
• Entry in They Work For You
• Entry in They Work For You