Name John Marshall Role British Politician | Party Conservative Party | |
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John Leslie Marshall (born 19 August 1940) is a British Conservative politician.
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Early career
Marshall was educated at Harris Academy in Dundee, Glasgow Academy and the University of St Andrews. He then became a university lecturer. He attempted to enter Parliament a number of times before he was successful. In 1964 and 1966 he contested Dundee East, but was beaten by the Labour incumbent George Thomson, the first time as a Liberal National, and the second time in Conservative colours. He fought Lewisham East in the February 1974 general election, coming second to Labour's Roland Moyle.
Marshall served as a councillor in Aberdeen from 1968 until 1970 and then in Ealing from 1971 until 1986.
He was MEP for London North from 1979 to 1989.
Parliamentary career
He lost to Michael Portillo in the selection for the Enfield Southgate byelection in 1984, but was later selected for Hendon South in the London Borough of Barnet and became Member of Parliament for that seat at the 1987 general election. He served as PPS to Tony Newton, when Newton was Leader of the House of Commons.
After the 1992 election, the Boundary Commission recommended that the four Barnet seats be reduced to three. Marshall was therefore pitched together with Hartley Booth, the MP for Finchley, in trying to win the nomination for the new seat of Finchley and Golders Green. Both MPs put a great deal of effort into the fight, hiring minibuses to ensure all their supporters got to the selection meeting; the contest became bitter when Booth accused Marshall of "signing up the dead and the dying" as Conservative members in order to boost his chances.
Despite most of the new constituency coming from Booth's old seat, Marshall won the selection contest on 1 November 1995 but went on to lose the seat unexpectedly to Labour candidate Rudi Vis in the 1997 election.
After Parliament
In May 1998 Marshall was elected to Barnet London Borough Council for a ward in his old constituency and following the Conservative victory in local elections in 2002, he has served in the Cabinet. He unsuccessfully sought to regain his Finchley and Golders Green seat at the 2001 general election, but Vis beat him by 3,716 votes.
He is currently Cabinet Member for Investment in Learning, responsible for implementing the Primary Schools rebuilding programme (known as PSCIP), and the Libraries Strategy, which is modernising library provision across the Borough. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the leadership of the Conservative group in 2005.
John Marshall was Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet in the Municipal year 2008-2009.