Political Career
After graduation he joined the Conservative Research Department, working first for Lord Carrington in the House of Lords until 1977 and then as European Desk Officer until 1979. In 1979 he became research assistant to Baroness Elles.
In July 1982 he was chosen as Conservative candidate for Darlington and fought the Darlington by-election on 24 March 1983 following the death of Ted Fletcher, the Labour MP. Although he lost to Labour's Ossie O'Brien by some 2,412 votes, just 77 days later he defeated O'Brien by 3,438 votes in the June 1983 election. He remained the MP there until the 1992 General Election when he was defeated by Labour's Alan Milburn by a margin of 2,798 votes.
He re-entered Parliament at the 1997 general election in the safe Conservative constituency of Sevenoaks following the retirement of the sitting Tory MP, Mark Wolfson, and has served as the MP there since.
Read more about this topic: Michael Fallon
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