Patrick McLoughlin

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Patrick Allen McLoughlin (born 30 November 1957, Stafford) is a British politician. He is a Conservative Member of Parliament, having represented West Derbyshire since 1986. He is a member of the Shadow Cabinet and has been the Opposition Chief Whip since 2005.

[edit] Background

Patrick McLoughlin was born in Stafford, the son and grandson of coal miners. He was educated at the Cardinal Griffin Roman Catholic School in Cannock, Staffordshire and Staffordshire College of Agriculture at Rodbaston College. From 1974 he worked for five years as an agricultural labourer and after 1979 worked at the Littleton Colliery in Cannock. He was a member of the National Union of Mineworkers, he became an industrial representative for the National Coal Board's Western Area Marketing Department.

He has been married to Lynne Newman since 1984, they live in the constituency and have a son and a daughter.

[edit] Political career

He was elected as a councillor to the Cannock Chase District Council for seven years from 1980, and also a councillor on Staffordshire County Council from 1981 to1987. In 1982 he served as the Chairman of the National Young Conservatives. McLoughlin unsuccessfully contested Wolverhampton South East at the 1983 General Election, but was defeated by 5,000 votes by the sitting Labour MP Robert Edwards. Matthew Parris, the sitting Conservative MP for Derbyshire West resigned from the Commons to pursue a career in journalism in 1986 and McLoughlin was chosen to fight the by-election. He held the seat, albeit very narrowly, with a wafer-thin 100 majority.

In Parliament, McLoughlin served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary initially to Angela Rumbold the Minister of State at the Department for Education and Science (1987-88), and then to David Young the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1988-99). He was made a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State by Margaret Thatcher in 1989 and served in the Department for Transport until 1992, when he was moved by John Major to serve in the same position at the Department for the Environment, a year later he was moved to the Department for Trade and Industry.

McLoughlin joined the government Whips' Office in 1995 as an Assistant, becoming a Lord Commissioner in 1996. After the defeat at the 1997 general election defeat, he remained in the whips' office in opposition, becoming the Deputy Chief Whip in 1998, and promoted to Chief Whip by David Cameron in 2005. He has also served on many select committees. As Opposition Chief Whip, he was, in June 2005, sworn of the Privy Council.

[edit] Styles

• Mr Patrick McLoughlin (1957–1986)
• Mr Patrick McLoughlin MP (1986–2005)
• The Rt. Hon. Patrick McLoughlin MP (2005–)

[edit] External links

• Patrick McLoughlin official site
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Patrick McLoughlin MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Patrick McLoughlin MP
• Open Directory Project - Patrick McLoughlin directory category

[edit] Offices held