Angela Browning - Political Career

Political Career

Browning contested Crewe and Nantwich at the 1987 general election but was narrowly defeated by the veteran Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody by just 1,092 votes. She was selected for the safe Conservative seat of Tiverton following the retirement of Robin Maxwell-Hyslop, who had represented the seat for 32 years. She held the seat comfortably at the 1992 general election with a majority of 11,089. She made her maiden speech on 12 June 1992.

After her election, Browning became a Member of the Agriculture Select Committee in 1992. She was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department for Education and Employment Michael Forsyth in 1993. Also in 1993 she became the President of the National Autistic Society. She entered John Major's government in 1994 when she became a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, where she remained until the Major government fell. She became a vice president of the National Alzheimer's Disease Society in 1997.

Her Tiverton seat was abolished, but she won the nomination for the newly drawn Tiverton and Honiton seat which she contested at the 1997 general election. She won the new seat with a majority of 1,653.

After John Major resigned from the Leadership of the Conservative Party she ran the John Redwood campaign team. She was appointed as an opposition spokeswoman on Education and Employment under William Hague but she stepped down in 1998 to look after her autistic adult son, Robin. However, Hague brought her back in 1999 and she entered the Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, and in 2000 was the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. After the 2001 general election she was briefly an opposition spokesperson on Constitutional Affairs, before becoming the Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party 2000-04.

In the 2005 general election, Browning increased her majority to 11,051; almost the majority of the original Tiverton seat she took in 1992.

She was a Member of both the Public Accounts and Standards and Privileges Select Committees.

On 17 November 2006, Browning announced her intention not to stand as a candidate at the 2010 general election.