Andrew Turner - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Andrew John Turner is a Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

politician in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. He is currently the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

(MP) for the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight (UK Parliament constituency)

Isle of Wight is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created by the Great Reform Act for the 1832 general election, it covers the whole of the Isle of Wight and elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post voting system.-...

, a post he has held since the 2001 general election

United Kingdom general election, 2001

The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...

Education

Turner was educated at Rugby School

Rugby School

Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...

, an independent school

Independent school

An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...

for boys in the market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

of Rugby

Rugby, Warwickshire

Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, located on the River Avon. The town has a population of 61,988 making it the second largest town in the county...

in Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

, followed by Keble College

Keble College, Oxford

Keble College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to the south by Museum Road, and to the west by Blackhall...

at the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, receiving an MA in Geography. He later studied to be a teacher at the University of Birmingham

University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...

and Henley Management College.

Life and career

Turner taught economics in comprehensive schools. Turner was an education advisor to the previous Conservative government and founded the Grant Maintained School

Grant-maintained school

Grant-maintained schools were state schools in England and Wales between 1988 and 1998 that had opted out of local government control, being funded directly by a grant from central government...

s Foundation which he ran from 1988-1997. He was a councillor on Oxford

Oxford

City Council

City council

A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...

for several years. In 2000, he worked for the Labour-controlled London Borough of Southwark

London Borough of Southwark

The London Borough of Southwark is a London borough in south east London, England. It is directly south of the River Thames and the City of London, and forms part of Inner London.-History:...

on outsourcing their education provision following a negative report from Ofsted

Ofsted

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....

Parliamentary career

Turner contested Hackney South and Shoreditch in 1992, then the Birmingham East MEP seat in 1994. Turner took the Isle of Wight seat in the 2001 general election

United Kingdom general election, 2001

, after having previously stood in 1997

United Kingdom general election, 1997

The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

, making one of the few gains for the Conservative Party in 2001.

Member of Parliament

Since being elected as a Member of Parliament in 2001, Andrew Turner was selected to serve on the Education and Skills Select Committee. In addition to this, in November 2001 Mr Turner was elected to the executive of the 1922 Committee

1922 Committee

In British politics, the 1922 Committee is a committee of Conservative Members of Parliament. Voting membership is limited to backbench MPs although frontbench Conservative MPs have an open invitation to attend meetings. While the party was in opposition, frontbench MPs other than the party leader...

of the Conservative Party. From 2003 to 2005, Andrew served as Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party. In 2005 he extended his majority to 12,978. Later in the year he was moved to the Conservative frontbench, being given the role of Shadow Minister for Charities, replacing Jacqui Lait

Jacqui Lait

Jacqueline Anne "Jacqui" Lait is a British Conservative Party politician and former Member of Parliament for Beckenham.-Early life:...

, until 2006, when he was replaced by Greg Clark

Greg Clark

Rt. Hon. Gregory David Clark is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Tunbridge Wells since 2005. Clark is currently a Minister of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government, with responsibility for overseeing decentralisation, a key...

. During his time on the Conservative frontbench he was the party's spokesman on the Charities Bill. Since 5 February 2008 he has been on the Justice Committee. Turner has broken the Conservative Party whip on rare occasions.

During the Conservative Party Conference at Manchester in 2009, Andrew Turner was praised by Sir George Young

Sir George Young, 6th Baronet

Sir George Samuel Knatchbull Young, 6th Baronet is a British politician. He is currently the Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal, and has served as a Conservative Party Member of Parliament since 1974, having represented North West Hampshire since 1997, and Ealing Acton before...

for doing a "first-class job" representing 107,000 constituents on the Isle of Wight as he spoke about Conservative proposals to cut the number of MPs by 10 per cent.

In March 2010, a letter sent to Business Secretary Peter Mandelson

Peter Mandelson

Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...

was revealed following a freedom of information request. Despite getting Lord Mandelson's name correct in the address it went on to refer to him as 'Mr Mandelweassel' and 'Herr Dictator Mandelweasel'. Although the author's name was blacked out the letter was signed off "from the office of Andrew Turner" and written on his House of Commons headed paper. The mistake is understood to have arisen after a member of staff from Turner's office copied the name down when following up on e-mail over the Digital Britain

Digital Britain

The Digital Britain report was a policy document published in 2009, which outlined the United Kingdom Government's strategic vision for ensuring that the country is at the leading edge of the global digital economy....

review. Following the revelation, Turner took responsibility referring to the incident as a 'boob'.

Turner announced that he would be seeking re-election in his constituency at the 2010 general election. Following the count of results for the 2010 general election it was announced that Andrew Turner had been re-elected as MP for the Isle of Wight with a majority of 10,527 with a total number of 32,810 votes. The result showed a small reduction of 2.3% of the vote.

Expenses claims

Following the MPs expenses scandal of 2009, Andrew Turner announced that all his expenses would be published on-line. He currently has his constituency home in Newport

Newport, Isle of Wight

Newport is a civil parish and a county town of the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England. Newport has a population of 23,957 according to the 2001 census...

registered as his second home. In 2008, he claimed £137,641, putting him in 438th place of 645 MPs. £108,842 of which was used to run his Newport-based office which employs four full-time staff including his partner and parliamentary assistant, Carole Dennett.

Later in June, his expenses were revealed by the Daily Telegraph showing £6 spent on wrapping paper on Christmas Eve, four "life coaching" sessions costing £160, £240 for a member of staff to study GCSE maths and £20 on cufflinks. Claims were made in successive years for digital radios, one for £199 and another for £139. A further claim of £10 was made for a vase for his office after a well-wisher sent him flowers following a stroke. In 2004, Mr Turner lost an employment tribunal to former office manager Colin Hedgley who was found to be unfairly dismissed and was ordered to pay £10,250 compensation, of which he claimed £6,471 from parliamentary allowances and paid the rest from personal funds. He later defended the claims, stating that except for the £6 wrapping paper, all claims were directly related to his work as an MP. Further concern was expressed over an email his partner sent to the fees office after they asked for bank account details the month before the 2005 general election stating "Look forward to receiving the money – I shall then be able to spend it on lots of booze so that the forthcoming election goes in an alcoholic blur." Turner later confirmed in a statement that it was a private joke between two people in regular contact and admitted in the cold light of day that it could be judged as inappropriate. A constituent in Wooton then discovered Andrew Turner had claimed twice for carpet cleaner and sundry items costing £162.04 with the same receipt, once in 2006 and later in 2007. However this has now been repaid to the fees office.

As an MP, Andrew Turner's expenses claims formed part of the investigation into parliamentary expenses headed up by Sir Thomas Legg, a former civil servant. Andrew Turner stated that he would be willing to pay back any expenses he claimed for, if asked to, as a result of the report. However the report could also put the future of Andrew Turner's parliamentary assistant and partner into doubt as following calls for rules to stop MPs employing relatives.

In July 2011, it was revealed that during 2010-11, Turner had claimed £119,315 of expenses, higher than any other MP in neighbouring Hampshire and 197th overall which included over £16,000 for accommodation, £4,800 for travel and £97,864.47 for an office and staff. Mr Turner defended the claims with one-off expenditures such as an office move to the Riverside Centre.

Electoral performance

Prior to becoming a Member of Parliament, Andrew Turner contested a number of other elections in various locations across Britain for the Conservative Party. In 1992

United Kingdom general election, 1992

The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...

Turner stood in the Hackney South and Shoreditch constituency, however fell short of a majority by 9,016 to Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

candidate Brian Sedgemore

Brian Sedgemore

Brian Charles John Sedgemore is a former Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom; he was a Member of Parliament from 1974 until 1979, and from 1983 until 2005...

. In 1994 he stood in the European elections for Birmingham East

Birmingham East (European Parliament constituency)

Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales...

, coming second again to Labour. 1997 was the first election fought by Turner on the Isle of Wight, and came second to Liberal Democrat MP Peter Brand

Peter Brand

Peter Brand is a United Kingdom general practitioner and Liberal Democrat politician. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Isle of Wight at the 1997 general election after coming second in 1992, but lost his seat to the Conservatives at the 2001 election...

, who Turner later ousted at the 2001 general election

United Kingdom general election, 2001

, with a swing of 5.7% for the Conservatives and 2,826 more votes than the Liberal Democrats. This increased again by the time of the 2005 election

United Kingdom general election, 2005

The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

, with Turner achieving 48.9% of the votes. 2010 saw a slight dip in support but still a comfortable win with a share of 46.7% of the vote.

Election	Constituency	Position	Votes	Percentage	Swing %
1992 general election United Kingdom general election, 1992 The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...	Hackney South and Shoreditch	2nd	10,714	29.0	+0.3
1994 European Parliament election	Birmingham East	2nd	35,171	22.7	n/a
1997 general election United Kingdom general election, 1997 The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...	Isle of Wight	2nd	24,868	34.0	-13.9
2001 general election United Kingdom general election, 2001 The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...	Isle of Wight	1st	25,223	39.7	+5.7
2005 general election United Kingdom general election, 2005 The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....	Isle of Wight	1st	32,717	48.9	+9.2
2010 general election	Isle of Wight	1st	32,810	46.7	-2.3

One Wight

In July 2010 Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced plans to normalize the size of constituencies to around 77,000 with plans for part of the island to be represented by a mainland MP, something which has not happened since 1832. Two exceptions to the boundary changes had been made to Scottish islands but it was felt that as the Isle of Wight was geographically closer to the mainland, such an exception would not be necessary. The One Wight campaign, led by Andrew Turner launched with a petition on 23 July 2010 and within the first week over 1,500 people had signed, which had increased to 5,000 by the middle of August. The target of 10,000 signatures was reached over the Garlic Festival weekend in August with the final figure of 17,529 before the petition reached Downing Street.

On 6 September 2010 the OneWight petition was taken to Downing Street with Andrew Turner and several other island representatives including Labour representative Mark Chiverton and Liberal Democrat representative Jill Wareham who both stood as candidates in the 2010 general election.

Personal life

On 14 August 2006, Turner was attending the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

County Show with his Jack Russell Terrier

Jack Russell Terrier

The Jack Russell terrier is a small terrier that has its origins in fox hunting. It is principally white-bodied smooth, rough or broken-coated which is commonly confused with the Parson Russell terrier and the Russell terrier with the term "Jack Russell" commonly misapplied to other small white...

, when he lost hold of the lead. The dog escaped and ate a four-year-old ferret

Ferret

The ferret is a domesticated mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur...

. Turner later apologised to the ferret's owner Patricia Price.

On 10 December 2006, it was reported that Turner had suffered a "serious stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

". In late April 2007, a message on Turner's website thanked friends and political opponents for their support and reported that he was recuperating, having since attended events around the island, and was expected to make a full recovery. He lives with his partner, Carole, in Newport

Newport, Isle of Wight

Newport is a civil parish and a county town of the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England. Newport has a population of 23,957 according to the 2001 census...

.

On 12 February 2010, Turner's partner Carole was involved in a public bust up with Isle of Wight Council leader Cllr David Pugh, following an incident which occurred outside a Charity Valentine's Ball at Cowes Yacht Haven. As the event occurred in public it was filmed by bystanders and later uploaded to video sharing website Youtube.

External links

Andrew Turner official site
Keep Andrew election campaign site
Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Andrew Turner MP
TheyWorkForYou.com - Andrew Turner
The Public Whip - Andrew Turner MP voting record
BBC Politics page
Allowances by MP - Andrew Turner
Audio clip talking about Tanzania in 2001
Video clip of Andrew Turner on a mini hovercraft

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