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 Biography |
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Before Parliament
Mike originates from Worcester and trained as a lawyer in Birmingham. His late father worked on the railway and his mother was a school dinner lady and later a cleaner for the Royal Mail until she was 72 yeras old. He recalls, "My parents worked hard, they believed in doing the right thing and helping others and brought us up that way. "My interest in politics came when the Conservative Council put up the rent on our council house and my parents were worried about it. The Labour Party opposed it and as a fifteen year old I asked if... In Parliament
Mike stood for Parliament in North Warwickshire in 1987, when sitting Conservative M.P., Francis Maude, won the seat. Mike fought the constituency again in 1992 and was elected by a small majority. There were three main issues in the campaign, opencast mining, the BNRR and the future of Hams Hall. For ten years Mike battled to prevent opencast mining threatening the villages of Dordon, Baddesley, Grendon, Polesworth, Shuttington and Newton Regis. People were worried about the dirt, noise and environmental damage that open casting for coal causes. Mike backed local residents campaigning against open cast applications. Under the opencast rules... In Government
Meantime in Parliament, Mike was appointed as a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, he worked closely with the Shadow Home Secretary, Tony Blair on proposals to tackle anti social behaviour. In 1993 the Police Federation asked him to be their Parliamentary Adviser - the first Labour adviser in twenty years. "I have strongly supported more police. In Warwickshire the then Conservative Home Secretary cut Warwickshire Police by 11%, the biggest cut in Britain. I later worked with the Labour Government to put more money into policing, which was done and today Warwickshire Police numbers are back up. But...
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