Humfrey Malins - Parliamentary Career

Parliamentary Career

He contested Liverpool Toxteth in both 1974 general elections and Lewisham East in the 1979 general election.

In the 1983 general election he was elected MP for Croydon North West, beating by-election victor Bill Pitt. He spent most of his time on the backbenches, but was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Timothy Renton from 1987 to 1989 and then Virginia Bottomley from 1989 to 1992.

In the 1992 general election he was defeated for re-election by the Labour candidate Malcolm Wicks.

In 1993 he founded the Immigration Advisory Service, a charitable organisation providing free legal advice on immigration and asylum issues.

He became a District Judge in 1991 and in 1996 became a Recorder at the Crown Court. In 1997 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to immigration policy.

At the 1997 general election he was able to be selected for the usually safe Conservative seat of Woking. On his return to Parliament, he became a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Malins supported Kenneth Clarke's failed bid in the 2001 leadership contest, but nonetheless was appointed to Iain Duncan Smith's front bench team as a junior home affairs spokesman.

In March 2003 he resigned from the opposition front bench in protest at their support of the Invasion of Iraq. He was later re-appointed to the front bench as a shadow home affairs minister when Michael Howard became leader in November 2003, but returned to the backbenches under David Cameron.

With his legal experience as a solicitor, a District Judge and a Crown Recorder he was one of Parliaments foremost experts in criminal justice and home affairs.

He announced in March 2009 his intention to stand down, and left parliament at the 2010 general election.