Nigel Forman - Minister of Higher Education, April 1992 To December 1992

Minister of Higher Education, April 1992 To December 1992

“The omission of Nigel Forman, from successive ministerial reshuffles over the past few years has surprised many at Westminster when several apparently less talented politicians have secured top posts. But after 16 years in the Commons, he has become an under-secretary at the education department” – the Times, 15 April 1992

Forman was appointed Under Secretary of State for Education (with the job title Minister of Higher and Further Education) under Education Secretary John Patten. During his tenure of office, Forman dealt with high profile issues such as the financing of student unions, student loans and the quality assurance of degrees issued by the new universities.

Forman unexpectedly resigned from his ministerial post on 11 December 1992 for “personal reasons”. The nature of those personal reasons was never disclosed. Colleagues commented that Forman was “a very private man” and nobody claimed to know why he had resigned.

Thereafter, Forman’s political career went into decline. His political interests appeared to become more theoretical in nature. In January 1996 the Demos 'think tank' published a paper written by him on reform of the income tax system. Demos was generally considered to be closely associated with New Labour. At the 1997 general election, Forman lost his seat to the Liberal Democrat candidate Tom Brake. Forman's 10,000 vote majority in the 1992 general election was converted into a 2,000 vote Liberal Democrat majority with a 12% swing from Conservative to Lib Dem. That was an exceptionally bad result for the Conservatives even by the standards of the 1997 election.