Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Categories: 1948 births | Members of the Privy Council | British MPs | UK Conservative Party politicians
David Davis
This article is about the British politician. For others with the same name see David Davis (disambiguation).
The Right Honourable David Davis (born December 23, 1948) is a British politician, and Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden . Curiously, Haltemprice is also the seat occuppied by fictional Tory MP Alan B'Stard in the ITV sitcom The New Statesman.
He has graduated in computer science and molecular science from the University of Warwick in 1971, and then mainly worked for Tate and Lyle.
He contested the 2001 election for the leadership of the Conservative Party, but came fourth. He was then appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party but was sacked in 2002 by Iain Duncan Smith while on a family holiday in Florida. He was given a new job by the long winded title of Shadow Secretary of State for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, largely viewed as a demotion. The manner of his sacking ensured a significant amount of sympathy among Conservative Party activists, whom he courted as a bastion of the more Thatcherite right. After Smith was removed as Conservative leader by a vote of no confidence, he surprised commentators by quickly announcing that he would not stand again for the leadership, and leant his support to Michael Howard instead. He was rewarded for this by being made Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department.
Davis has emerged as one of the main candidates to succeed Howard in the future, and successfully gained the 'scalp' of Beverley Hughes over an immigration controversy. He has a social conservative following on the Tory backbenches and, more significantly, in the membership at large.
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