Patrick Wall - Political Career

Political Career

Patrick Wall was a councillor on the City of Westminster Council from 1953 to 1963. In the 1951 General Election and a subsequent by-election in 1952, he stood unsuccessfully for the parliamentary seat of Cleveland, Yorkshire. He was later elected Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Haltemprice 1954-1983, and for Beverley, Yorkshire 1983-1987. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 1955-57, and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer 1958-59. He was UK delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1962, Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence 1965-1977, Chairman of the British-South Africa Parliamentary Group 1970-1987, on the British-Portuguese Parliamentary Group 1979-1987, and leader of the British delegation to the North Atlantic Assembly 1979-1987, of which he was President, 1983-1985.

In February 1972, in the House of Commons Patrick Wall called for government intervention in the miners' strike saying that "initimidation and even violence by picketing miners has given rise to widespread anxiety".

During the Thatcher years, Wall reflected that Britain had "moved rapidly to the Left under Labour governments, and more slowly to the Left under successive Conservative governments".

During this period, he sat on numerous parliamentary committees, one of which recommended building a strategic airfield in the Falkland Islands after the war.