Ed Vaizey

The Honourable  Ed Vaizey MP
Member of Parliament for Wantage
Incumbent
Assumed office  5 May 2005
Preceded by	Robert V. Jackson
Majority	8,017 (15.4%)
Born	5 June 1968 (1968-06-05) (age 41)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	Merton College, Oxford

Edward Henry Butler Vaizey (born 5 June 1968) is a British Conservative commentator, politician and columnist. He was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the constituency of Wantage in the 2005 general election.

Early life

Vaizey is the son of the late Lord Vaizey, a life peer, and Marina Vaizey, a well-known art historian. As the son of a peer he has the title "The Honourable Edward Vaizey". Vaizey spent part of his childhood growing up in Berkshire. He was educated at St Paul's School and Merton College, Oxford, where he rose to the rank of Librarian (Vice President) of the Oxford Union and took a BA in History, achieving a 2.1. After leaving Oxford, Vaizey worked for the Conservative politicians Kenneth Clarke and Michael Howard as an adviser on employment and education issues. He trained and practised as a barrister for several years, specialising in family law and child care cases. He was a partner at Consolidated Communications, a Public Relations agency.^{[1][not in citation given]}

Vaizey is president of Didcot Town F.C.

Media career

He has been a regular commentator on the Conservative Party in the press. He has written regular comment pieces for The Guardian since 1998, and contributes articles to the Sunday Times news review. He has also written for The Times and the Daily Telegraph and written editorials for the Evening Standard. Vaizey is also a regular broadcaster, appearing on Fi Glover's and Edwina Currie's shows on BBC Radio Five Live, as a regular panellist on five’s The Wright Stuff, BBC Radio 4's Despatch Box and Westminster Hour, and occasionally as a presenter of People and Politics on the BBC World Service.

Politics

Vaizey first stood for Parliament at the 1997 general election, when he was the candidate for Bristol East. In the 2001 UK general election, he acted as an election aide to Iain Duncan Smith. He stood in the 2002 local elections in the safe Labour ward of Harrow Road in the City of Westminster.

He is seen^[who?] as a moderniser in the Conservative Party, contributing in both policy and image terms. He was a speechwriter for Michael Howard, leader of the Conservative Party until December 2005, and the editor of the Blue Books series, which looked at new approaches to Conservative policy in areas such as health and transport. He was one of Michael Howard's inner circle of advisers and a member of a group of young Tories sometimes disparagingly referred to as the "Notting Hill set", along with David Cameron — elected leader of the party in December 2005 — George Osborne, Michael Gove, Nicholas Boles and Rachel Whetstone. Like Gove and Boles, he is a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society.

Member of Parliament

In 2002 he was selected by Wantage Conservative Association as its candidate for the 2005 election, to succeed the sitting MP, Robert Jackson, who subsequently defected to Labour. Vaizey won a two-thirds majority on the final ballot of members. He was elected as Member of Parliament in that election, with 22,394 votes. His majority was 8,017 over the Liberal Democrats. This represented 43% of the voters and a 1.9% swing from the Liberal Democrats to the Tories.

When first elected to Parliament, Vaizey was a member of the Standing Committee on the Consumer Credit Bill. Before going on the front bench he was a member of the Modernisation and Environmental Audit Select Committees and was Deputy Chairman of the Conservative's Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group.

In November 2006, he was appointed to the Conservative front bench as a Shadow Minister for Culture, looking after arts and broadcasting policy.

Expense claims

On 18 May 2009 the Daily Telegraph reported that receipts submitted by Vaizey show that he ordered a £467 sofa, a £544 chair, a £280.50 low table and a £671 table in February 2007 from Oka, an upmarket furniture shop. The Commons fees office initially rejected the claim as the receipt said that the furniture was due to be delivered to Vaizey's home address in west London, but was later paid when Vaizey told the fees office that the furniture was intended for his second home in his Wantage constituency. Vaizey said it "had it delivered to London because we would be in to collect it and we were driving down with it."^[2]

When these claims became public, Mr Vaizey said that he had repaid the cost of the Oka furniture and the antique chair which he had bought with taxpayers' money: "I accept that the £300 armchair was an antique item and therefore that claim should not have been made. I also accept that the Oka items could be deemed as being of higher quality than necessary. I have paid back both these claims. I have not claimed for any other furniture bought for my constituency home at any time before or since."^[2]

Bibliography

• A Blue Tomorrow - New Visions for Modern Conservatives (2001) (ed. with Michael Gove and Nicholas Boles). ISBN 1-84275-027-5
• Blue Book on Health: Conservative Visions for Health Policy (2002) ISBN 1-84275-043-7
• Blue Book on Transport: Conservative Visions for Transport Policy (ed with Michael McManus) (2002) ISBN 1-84275-044-5
• Blue Book on Education (ed with Michael McManus) (2003)

References

External links

• Ed Vaizey MP official website
• Profile on the Conservative Party website
• Ed Vaizey blog
• Ed Vaizey on Twitter
• Guardian Unlimited Politics — Ask Aristotle: Ed Vaizey MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Edward Vaizey MP
• The Public Whip — Edward Vaizey MP voting record
• Ed Vaizey's webcast
• Open Directory Project - Edward Vaizey directory category
• Video game industry interview with Ed Vaizey at Bruceongames
• Art interview with Ed Vaizey at Artforums.co.uk