Stephen Dorrell
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The Right Honourable Stephen Dorrell (born March 25 1952) is an English politician and Tory member of Parliament for Charnwood. He is a member of the Privy Council, and a patron of the Tory Reform Group.
He became MP for Loughborough in 1979, and became a government whip in 1987. In 1990 he was made a junior Health minister, and then Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1992 to 1994. He was Secretary of State for National Heritage until 1995, then became Secretary of State for Health until the end of the Tory administration. With a boundary change in the 1997 election, he moved with his key rural voters into the new Charnwood Constituency), Loughborough itself being lost to Andy Reed of Labour.
He launched a bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1997 but withdrew before the first ballot when it became clear his support amongst Conservative MPs was negligible. Instead he threw his support behind Kenneth Clarke's bid. Under William Hague he became shadow Secretary of State for Education and Employment, but left the shadow cabinet in 1998.
External links
- Stephen Dorrell MP (http://www.stephendorrell.org.uk/) official site
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Stephen Dorrell MP (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-1442,00.html)
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Stephen Dorrell MP (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/stephen_dorrell/charnwood)
| Preceded by: Peter Brooke | Secretary of State for National Heritage 1994–1995 | Succeeded by: Virginia Bottomley |
| Preceded by: Virginia Bottomley | Secretary of State for Health 1995–1997 | Succeeded by: Frank Dobson |