Political Career
He contested the 1987 general election in the marginal Brecon and Radnorshire constituency, but lost by 56 votes to the sitting Liberal MP Richard Livsey.
At the 1992 general election, he defeated Livsey (who was now a Liberal Democrat) by 130 votes and took his seat in the House of Commons. He was a junior minister in the John Major government, serving as Parliamentary Secretary to the Lord Chancellor; Corporate Affairs Minister at the Department of Trade and Industry; and then serving under William Hague as Under Secretary of State for Wales from 1996 to 1997. However, at the 1997 general election Livsey retook the seat with a majority of over 5,000.
At the European Parliament election, 1999, Evans was elected as MEP for Wales in 1999, and he was re-elected at the 2004 Euro-elections. He was Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament from 2001 until 2004. In August 2007, he was selected to fight the highly marginal seat of Cardiff North in the 2010 general election. He won and is currently MP for the constituency, turning a majority of 1,146 votes for Labour into a 194 vote majority for himself.
Jonathan Evans stood down from the European Parliament at the 2009 elections and was succeeded by Kay Swinburne, MEP.
Read more about this topic: Jonathan Evans (politician)
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