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Revision as of 16:58, 9 November 2006 by Fys (talk | contribs) (revert highly POV edit)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Anne Frances Milton (born November 3, 1955) is the Conservative MP for Guildford.
Milton was educated at Haywards Heath Grammar School in West Sussex. She later trained as a nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and worked for the NHS for 25 years, as a district nurse and for people with terminal cancer. Her husband, Dr Graham Henderson, also works in the NHS in the field of community medicine. In November 2006, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Tourism.
Political experience
Milton was a councillor in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead 1999 – 2004 and led the Conservative Group on the council. She was a member of the South East Regional Assembly and Vice Chairman of the Conservative Medical Society. She applied to go on the Conservative Party's list of Parliamentary candidates in 1999, and was rated highly by the party. In the selection for Bexhill and Battle in August 2000 and at Bridgwater, she was among the three finallists but lost out narrowly and did not find another seat for the 2001 general election.
Guildford
In 2002 Milton was selected for Guildford, a seat which the Conservatives had unexpectedly lost in 2001 to the Liberal Democrats. This was one of the first selections to be made and Milton stood out not only because few women had been selected. Her connection to health care, an area in which the Conservatives felt weak, and her lack of interest in issues such as British membership of the European Union and asylum-seekers, meant that she was thought of as a member of the modernising wing of the Conservative Party.
Following Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith's 2003 conference speech, Milton was interviewed in the Sunday Herald newspaper published in Glasgow. She stated that the priority she heard from the people of Guildford was crime, but lamented the poor press reaction to Duncan Smith's speech. After Duncan Smith was defeated in a vote of confidence among Conservative MPs, she immediately backed Michael Howard as the new leader; following his election, she played host to his wife Sandra on a campaign trip to Guildford.
General election
There was a good deal of interest in the result at Guildford in the 2005 general election, prompted not only by the fact that the seat was highly marginal but also by the rare phenomenon of two women candidates contesting for the victory. Milton highlighted Conservative plans to abolish regional planning bodies and reduce the amount of new housing built in the area, especially on green field sites. The then sitting Liberal Democrat MP highlighted the fact that Milton lived outside the constituency in Reigate, prompting Milton to respond that "It isn't in Tierra del Fuego!"
Some attention during the campaign was paid to a blog set up by Guildford resident Tim Ireland who was opposed to Milton. He pointed to her use of photographs of Conservative activists in her election literature that appeared to represent ordinary voters without party political interest. He has also questioned her performance on the Health Select Committee. Milton refuses to discuss the weblog and once dismissed the author as "an angry young man".
Parliament
On election day, Milton won by 347 votes, after two recounts. In Parliament she was swiftly appointed to the Health Select Committee. She announced her backing for David Cameron in the Conservative Party leadership election on October 11, 2005, becoming the 29th Conservative MP to support him. She offered herself as a candidate for the 1922 Committee executive in January 2006 but was not elected.
In February 2006, Milton was among a minority of Conservative MPs to oppose exceptions for private clubs from the proposed Smoking ban in England. The next month, she was the first Conservative MP to sign an early day motion tabled by Labour MP Chris Mullin calling for fake fur to be used in the bearskin hats worn by some regiments of the British Army.
References
External links
- Tim Ireland's weblog about Anne Milton
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Anne Milton MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Anne Milton MP
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