Political Career
McLoughlin was elected as a councillor on the Cannock Chase District Council for seven years from 1980, and also a councillor on Staffordshire County Council from 1981-87.
In 1982, McLoughlin served as the Chairman of the National Young Conservatives.
McLoughlin unsuccessfully contested Wolverhampton South East at the 1983 General Election, losing to the sitting Labour MP Robert Edwards by 5,000 votes.
Matthew Parris, the sitting Conservative MP for West Derbyshire, resigned from the House of Commons in 1986 to pursue a media career and McLoughlin was chosen to fight the by-election. He held the seat, albeit very narrowly, with a 100 majority.
In Parliament, McLoughlin served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary, initially to Angela Rumbold (Minister of State at the Department for Education and Science (1987–88)) and then to David Young, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1988–89). McLoughlin was made a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1989, and served in the Department for Transport until 1992, when he was moved by Prime Minister John Major to serve in the same position at the Department of Employment. A year later McLoughlin was moved to the Department of Trade and Industry.
He joined the government Whips' Office in 1995 as an assistant, becoming a Lord Commissioner in 1996. After the Conservative Party's defeat at the 1997 general election, he remained in the whips' office in opposition, becoming the Deputy Chief Whip in 1998. He was then promoted to Chief Whip by David Cameron in 2005. McLoughlin has also served on many select committees. As Opposition Chief Whip, he was sworn of the Privy Council in June 2005.
Following boundary changes, the West Derbyshire constituency seat was abolished at the 2010 general election, and McLoughlin was elected to the successor seat of Derbyshire Dales, achieving exactly the same number of votes. Prime Minister David Cameron appointed McLoughlin as the government's Chief Whip and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. During his tenure as Chief Whip, he was reprimanded by the Speaker John Bercow for inappropriate behaviour within the House of Commons.
In a government reshuffle in September 2012, McLoughlin was appointed Secretary of State for Transport. Soon after his appointment he had to cancel the award of the InterCity West Coast franchise due to major technical flaws in the bidding process.
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