Nick Hawkins

This article is about a politician. For a guitarist with Big Audio Dynamite, see Nick Hawkins (musician).

Nick Hawkins
Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath
In office 1 May 1997 – 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Constituency Established
Succeeded by	Michael Gove
Member of Parliament for Blackpool South
In office 9 April 1992 – 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Peter Blaker
Succeeded by	Gordon Marsden
Personal details
Born	27 March 1957 (1957-03-27) (age 54)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Jenny Cassar
Alma mater	Lincoln College, Oxford

Nicholas John "Nick" Hawkins (born 27 March 1957) is a lawyer and politician from the United Kingdom. He was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament from 1992-2005.

Hawkins was educated at Bedford Modern School and Lincoln College, Oxford, and called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1979.

Hawkins became a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Blackpool South in 1992. Prior to the 1997 general election, with polls predicting that the Conservatives had no chance of retaining the Blackpool South seat, Hawkins applied and was selected to contest the newly-created constituency of Surrey Heath, which was predicted to be one of the safest Conservative seats in the country. He duly won the seat with a majority 16,287, the second-largest Conservative majority of in the country that year (after John Major in Huntingdon). Hawkins was re-elected in 2001 with a reduced majority of 10,819.^[1][2]

Hawkins served in Prime Minister John Major's government in 1995-97, first at the Ministry of Defence and then at the then Department of National Heritage. In opposition he was appointed and promoted in a series of shadow ministerial jobs by four different Conservative Party leaders. Among other roles, he was Shadow Solicitor-General in 2003, a Shadow Home Office Minister on national security issues and drugs policy, Shadow Legal and Constitutional Affairs Minister, and Shadow spokesman on gambling twice (2000-01 and 2003-04).

In April 2004, Hawkins was deselected as the Conservative Party candidate for Surrey Heath following a ballot of party members in the constituency. He was asked by the Party Leader and Party Chairman to stand again for a different constituency, but decided instead to return to the law. Surrey Heath members believe that their money ought to be able to buy a future prime minister, The Daily Telegraph, 27 June 2004</ref>^[3] He remained a Member of Parliament until the 2005 general election. Michael Gove, a journalist at The Times newspaper, was selected as the new Conservative candidate for Surrey Heath in his place, and won the seat.

After leaving parliament, Hawkins returned to his previous career as a corporate lawyer; he had previously been a barrister on circuit from the late 1970s. He had also worked as in-house corporate counsel in banking, insurance, financial services and credit in the 1980s and early 1990s, was elected chairman of the corporate barristers' national organisation BACFI, and elected to serve on the Bar Council for six years and on its "inner cabinet", the GMC, for two years.

References

1. ^ Results and Constituencies: Surrey Heath, BBC News, retrieved on 26 June 2009
2. ^ Election Prediction Project: Surrey Heath, 10 May 2001
3. ^ Richest local Tory party drops fundraising ploy, The Guardian, 19 October 2004

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Peter Blaker	Member of Parliament for Blackpool South 1992–1997	Succeeded by Gordon Marsden
Preceded by (new constituency)	Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath 1997–2005	Succeeded by Michael Gove

Persondata
Name	Hawkins, Nick
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	27 March 1957
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death