After The 1997 General Election Defeat
When Major resigned after the 1997 General Election defeat, Redwood stood for the leadership, and was again defeated, though he secured more support than rival candidates Peter Lilley and Michael Howard.
Redwood served in the Shadow Cabinet of eventual winner William Hague, shadowing first the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, leading the Shadow Cabinet's opposition to the National Minimum Wage.
Redwood was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, but was dropped in a mini-reshuffle in February 2000. In 2001 Hague's successor, Iain Duncan Smith offered Redwood the Shadow Trade and Industry portfolio once again, but he declined on principle. He remained a potent presence on the backbenches, making useful attacks on the Government and writing books and pamphlets denouncing the European Union and praising Newt Gingrich and US capitalism. Among the many groups he has published pamphlets for are the Bruges Group, Research Centre Free Europe and the Selsdon Group.
On 8 September 2004, Michael Howard (by now Leader of the Opposition) added Redwood to the Shadow Cabinet as Spokesman on Deregulation (a post without a direct counterpart in the current government).
During the 2005 Conservative leadership campaign, Redwood supported first Liam Fox and then David Cameron. He was appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party's new Policy Review Group on Economic Competitiveness by Cameron in December 2005.
As his local party office had been the subject of numerous donations from Mabey Group, Redwood became chairman of a Mabey family trust for six years until 2007. He resigned 12 months before a Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribe payments made by Mabey Group to the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Read more about this topic: John Redwood
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