Geoffrey Lawler - Leaving Parliament

Leaving Parliament

Due to the circumstances of his 1983 win, Lawler's chances of retaining the seat at any subsequent election were not rated highly; Lawler himself knew that his seat was "highly risky". He made strenuous efforts to attract the votes of Asian residents of the constituency, who did not traditionally vote Conservative. Although the Conservative vote in Bradford North increased by more than 3,000, Lawler was defeated in the 1987 election by 1,633 votes. He noted that being an MP "doesn't give you many additional recognisable skills other than being a good communicator", but since he had previously worked in public relations before his election, he returned to the same field.

Lawler subsequently submitted his name for selection in several constituencies (among them Finchley, following Margaret Thatcher's announcement of her retirement) but after several narrow defeats was not selected anywhere. In 1991 he set up on his own as managing director of The Public Affairs Company, a political consultancy based in Leeds. A few days after the 2005 general election, Lawler wrote to The Times to remark that the Conservative Party's strategy was "misconceived" and that the negative tone "repelled many people and buried the positive reasons that would attract them to support the Conservatives"; he appeared to blame Lynton Crosby by calling for no more immigration by "election experts from Australia".

In 2010 Lawler joined Keene Public Affairs, and was promoted to its board of directors in July 2011.