Richard Shepherd - Parliamentary Career

Parliamentary Career

Shepherd contested the constituency of Nottingham East in February 1974, where he was defeated by the Labour Party candidate Jack Dunnett. Shepherd was formerly an assistant to Sir Teddy Taylor, and has been the Member of Parliament for Aldridge-Brownhills since 1979. He was selected as 'Backbencher of the Year' in 1985 and the Spectator's 'Parliamentarian of the Year' in 1995. In 1989, he was identified by a Mori poll of his fellow MPs to be one of the ten most effective MPs currently sitting in Parliament.

One of the most significant events in Shepherd's career came in 1988 when he introduced his Protection of Official Information Bill, which was to replace parts of the Official Secrets Act 1911, with intent to provide limited protection to some whistleblowers. The government introduced a three line whip which called on its MPs to vote against the bill, even though it was introduced by a member of their own party. This brought considerable debate at the time both in parliament and in the media. The bill was defeated. However Shepherd successfully introduced similar provisions into law in 1998.

Shepherd was one of the Maastricht rebels, and is known to have libertarian leanings. He had close links to fellow Maastricht rebels Nicholas Budgen and Christopher Gill, even giving the eulogy at Budgen's funeral at Lichfield Cathedral.

Shepherd is a strong advocate of Parliament's power to hold the government to account. Shepherd stood to be Speaker of the House of Commons in 2000, and won 136 votes: the third-closest to defeating Michael Martin of eleven opponents. When Martin was forced out, in 2009, he stood for the position again. An outsider, at 14/1, he won only 15 votes, and was eliminated on the first ballot.

Shepherd is rated as one of the Conservatives' most rebellious MPs.