David Curry - Political Career

Political Career

Curry was elected to the House of Commons for the very safe Conservative seat of Skipton and Ripon at the 1987 general election on the retirement of the sitting Conservative MP John Watson. Curry held the seat with a strong majority of 17,174 and has held the seat safely since. On his election he became a member of the Agriculture Select Committee until he was promoted to the government of Margaret Thatcher in 1989 as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and was promoted within the same department to Minister of State after the 1992 general election by John Major, a year later he moved sideways to the Department for the Environment where he remained until the Major government fell at the 1997 general election. He became a Member of the Privy Council in 1996. In opposition he became the Shadow Agriculture Secretary, but resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in December 1997 in protest at the policy of ruling out Britain joining the single European currency for the next ten years. In 1998, he became the chairman of the Agriculture Select Committee, and after the 2001 general election, its successor the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee until 2003 when he promoted again to the Shadow Cabinet by Michael Howard as the Shadow Local and Devolved Government Secretary until he resigned again, this time citing 'family reasons' in 2004, he was replaced by Caroline Spelman. He was a member of the Public Accounts Select Committee from 2004.

On 5 February 2009, Curry announced that he would not stand again at the 2010 election.

On 19 November 2009 Curry stood down from his position as chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Standards and Privileges after claims from the Telegraph newspaper regarding his expenses and has reportedly referred himself to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority for investigation.