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John Horam

John Horam has been the Member of Parliament for Orpington, in the London Borough of Bromley, since 1992. In the recent General Election (May 2005) he increased his majority over the Liberal Democrats from 269 to 4947, polling more votes than any other candidate in London of any party.

This result surprised many. The Liberal Democrats, the bookies and pollsters and several distinguished journalists, including The Times, predicted his defeat. But in the end, as one newspaper put it, it was ‘a Tory walk in the park’, How did it happen? John himself puts it down to hard work.


John Horam was born on 7 March 1939 at Preston, Lancashire and was educated at Silcoates School, Wakefield and St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge. He has an MA in Economics.
On leaving university he joined Rowntree and Co, and then became a feature writer on the Financial Times and The Economist, before co-founding CRU International, an information company specialising in base metals, which is now the world leader in its field.

He became the Labour MP for Gateshead West in 1970, and was a Minister of Transport in the Callaghan government of 1976-1979.

After a brief period in the SDP, he joined the Conservative party in 1987, becoming Conservative MP for Orpington in 1992. He was made a Minister in the Department of Public Service and Science in 1994 and became a Health Minister the same year. He was the first Chairman of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee, a post which he held until standing down in order to fight the 2005 General Election.

He is married to writer Judith Jackson who was motoring editor of The Sunday Times and The Guardian. She is a trustee of the Dartington International Summer School Foundation, and sings in the Parliament Choir.

John’s hobbies are opera and ballet, looking at buildings and reading history. He is secretary of the All Party Opera Group and a Friend of Covent Garden. He is currently Chairman of the St. Catharine’s College Society.

JOHN HORAM – WORKING FOR ORPINGTON

John has campaigned hard on many issues facing his constituents.

He has worked closely with a local health campaigning group to save the beds in Orpington Hospital, which now has one of the best Treatment Centres in the country, as well as 40 Intermediate Care beds and other facilities.

He has relentlessly fought for more police on the beat in Orpington . He has had some success, but believes that much more radical measures are require if modern social problems are to be dealt with.

One third of the London Borough of Bromley, and nearly half of the Orpington constituency, which contains the southern and more rural part, is Green Belt. John has defended this stoutly against illegal occupation by ‘travellers’ , and excessive development. He is President of the Orpington Public Transport Users Association, and has persistently fought to improve the quality of local bus and rail services.

He is the Conservative representative on the London Forum for the Elderly, and takes a close interest in pensioner issues. He visits local schools regularly and has been active in support of the Orpington College of Further Education, of which his wife Judith, was a Governor for nine years.

In 1997 John became the first Chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee in the House of Commons, and established it as the major Commons committee dealing with the big environmental issues such as climate change and sustainable development.

He is currently a member of the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs. John is also President of Orpington Football Club.

He says of his change of political parties:
‘I joined the Labour Party as a young man because I have always been concerned about fairness. But I eventually realized that the Conservatives had a better approach to achieving both a fair and successful country, with their greater emphasis on personal responsibility and initiative. Thus the Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s sorted out our longstanding economic problems and future Conservative governments will in due course, improve the performance of our public sector – something which the Labour government is predictably failing to do.’

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