Andrew Murrison - Political Career

Political Career

Before entering full-time politics, Murrison was a member of the Bow Group, an assistant to Sir Peter Lloyd, the member of parliament for his home constituency of Fareham, and then from 1999 to 2000 an assistant to Lord Freeman, whose role at Conservative Central Office was screening potential parliamentary candidates.

In September 2000, Murrison was selected as the prospective Conservative candidate for the West Wiltshire constituency of Westbury and in June 2001 he was elected as Member of Parliament for the constituency. He was then appointed to the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee and was also a member of the Standing Committee on the NHS Reform Bill.

In the 2001 Conservative leadership election, Murrison supported Michael Portillo.

On 9 July 2003, Murrison asked the Prime Minister in parliament "The Criminal Records Bureau is blaming its disclosure fee and tight targets for its terrible performance. Last week, the fee doubled, the targets were scrapped and the disclosure deadline was kicked into the long grass. Who is responsible for this Horlicks, which is affecting so many of our constituents, and what is the Prime Minister doing about it?" He received the reply "The actual output of the Criminal Records Bureau has improved significantly over the past few months... It has been difficult to establish the Criminal Records Bureau and to get it working in the way that we want."

In November 2003, Murrison was appointed as a Conservative Shadow Minister for Health, while also taking an active interest in defence policy.

In 2004, in a free vote, he voted against the bill to ban foxhunting and hare coursing which became the Hunting Act 2004.

He was re-elected to parliament at the General Election in May 2005, and was appointed as shadow defence minister.

In 2005, he spoke in parliament against European military union, saying "The threat that the proposed Euro force might pose to one of the most successful post-war organisations, NATO, and to our symbiotic relationship with the United States, has surely not been adequately explored".

In 2006, Murrison asked the Prime Minister in the House of Commons about the proposed closure of all four community hospitals in his constituency: "Given that the Secretary of State for Health today declined me an audience to discuss the impending disaster facing my constituents in West Wiltshire, will the Prime Minister at least attempt to reconcile the rhetoric in her White Paper with the bitter reality facing my constituents on the ground?"

In House of Commons divisions in 2007 on a number of House of Lords reform options, Murrison voted for options 7 and 8, proposing a 100% elected House of Lords, including the removal of all remaining hereditary peers, and against options 4 and 5, which proposed a partly elected and partly appointed upper chamber.

In the debate on a Human Embryology and Fertilisation Bill in May 2008, he supported amendments to the bill aimed at reducing the maximum gestational age for an abortion from twenty-four to twenty weeks, commenting: "The shock of the abortion list twenty-five years ago is still clear in my mind. Since then, societal attitudes have changed, in part because of improved imaging of the unborn child. I'm sure the law needs updating and twenty weeks appears to strike the right balance".

He is a member of the "Cardiac Risk in the Young All Party Parliamentary Group".

Murrison's Westbury constituency was formally abolished at the end of the parliament of 2005 to 2010, but he was selected as the Conservative candidate for the new South West Wiltshire constituency, which includes most of his former electoral area, and was duly elected on 6 May 2010.

Following Murrison's re-election to Parliament, he was appointed as PPS to the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley owing to his experience as a medical physician.

Following the Prime Minister's first major cabinet reshuffle, Murrison was appointed as Minister for International Security Strategy in the Ministry of Defence.