Parliamentary Career
He contested the Caernarfon seat in the 1979 general election but was defeated. Eight years later he was elected the Member of Parliament for South East Cambridgeshire and has held the seat since.
At Westminster Paice first served as Secretary of the Backbench Employment Committee from 1988–89 and of the Backbench Horticulture and Markets Sub-Committee (1988–89). He was also a member of the Employment Select Committee from 1987 until 1989. He was made a minor member of the government in December 1989 as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Baroness Trumpington. A year later he became the PPS for John Gummer, who was then the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1990–93) and later Secretary of State for the Environment (1993–94). In July 1994 he was promoted to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Employment (from July 1995 the Department for Education and Employment) and served until the Conservative defeat in the 1997 general election.
In Opposition Paice became a spokesman for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1997–2001) and later on Home Affairs (2001–03). Under the leadership of Michael Howard, Paice was appointed Shadow Minister for Home, Constitutional and Legal Affairs. From September 2004 until his return to government, Paice served as Shadow Minister for Agriculture, a post he later took up in government.
On 13 May 2010 he was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Agriculture and Food Minister) in the coalition government.
On 10 July 2012, he admitted he did not know how much a pint of milk cost during an interview with BBC Radio 4's Farming Today.
On 4 September 2012, his appointment as Agriculture and Food Minister came to an end in a Cabinet reshuffle.
Read more about this topic: James Paice
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams, and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through [his] voyage, and of partaking in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer. I therefore waited for the first opportunity to haul down my sails.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)