David Curry


David Maurice Curry is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Skipton and Ripon from 1987 to 2010.

Early life

Curry, the son of a teacher, was educated at the Ripon Grammar School where he was head boy in 1962, and then at Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he received a BA degree in Modern History in 1966. He also attended the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as a Kennedy Scholar. He began his career as a reporter on the Newcastle Journal in 1966. In 1970, he became the world trade editor at the Financial Times where he remained until he was elected to the European Parliament. In 1977, he founded the Paris Conservative Association.

Political career

Curry contested the safe Labour seat of Morpeth at the February 1974 general election, but was beaten by the sitting Labour MP George Grant by 13,034 votes. The two met again at the October 1974 general election, when Grant won by 14,687 votes.
Curry was elected a Member of the European Parliament in 1979 for Essex North East. He served until 1989.
Curry was elected to the House of Commons for the safe Conservative seat of Skipton and Ripon at the 1987 general election on the retirement of the sitting Conservative MP John Watson. Curry won the seat with a majority of 17,174 and held the seat safely until he retired from Parliament in 2010.
Following his election Curry became a member of the Agriculture Select committee until he was promoted to the government of Margaret Thatcher in 1989 as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. He was promoted within the same department to Minister of State after the 1992 general election by John Major. A year later he moved sideways to the Department for the Environment where he remained until the Major government fell at the 1997 general election. He became a Member of the Privy Council in 1996.
In opposition Curry became the Shadow Agriculture Secretary, but resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in December 1997 in protest at the policy of ruling out Britain joining the single European currency for the next ten years. In 1998, he became the chairman of the Agriculture Select Committee and, after the 2001 general election, its successor the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee until 2003 when he promoted again to the Shadow Cabinet by Michael Howard as Shadow Local and Devolved Government Secretary. He resigned again in 2004, this time citing 'family reasons' and was replaced by Caroline Spelman. He was a member of the Public Accounts Select Committee from 2004.
On 5 February 2009, Curry announced that he would not stand at the 2010 election.
On 19 November 2009, Curry stood down from his position as chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Standards and Privileges after claims by The Daily Telegraph regarding his expenses and reportedly referred himself to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority for investigation.
In January 2013, Curry was appointed Editor-in-Chief of The Parliamentary Review.

Publications