David Davis
David Davis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | David Michael Davis 23 December 1948 York, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | University of Warwick, University of London | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Children | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse | Doreen Davis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Member of | Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Party | Conservative | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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David Davis (born 23 December 1948) is a British Conservative Party politician who, on 13 July 2016, following the UK voting to leave the European Union, was appointed Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union by Theresa May.[1]
On 19 June 2017, David Davis attended the opening round of Brexit negotiations with the EU's Michel Barnier in Brussels.[2]
Contents
Political career
Entering Parliament in 1987 for the Boothferry constituency which later became Haltemprice and Howden, David Davis held the positions of Science Minister 1993-4 and then Foreign Office Minister 1994-97, where he was responsible for government negotiations on Europe, NATO enlargement, the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the updated Geneva Convention.
After the 1997 election, David Davis was elected as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. From 2001-2002 he was Chairman of the Conservative Party and from 2002-2003 Shadow Deputy Prime Minister. He served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2003 – 2008.
David Davis had previously been a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2001 and 2005, coming fourth and then second.
Erosion of civil liberties
On 12 June 2008, Davis unexpectedly announced his intention to resign as an MP, and was immediately replaced as Shadow Home Secretary. This was in order to force a by-election in his seat, for which he intended to seek re-election by mounting a specific campaign designed to provoke wider public debate about the erosion of civil liberties in the United Kingdom. Following his formal resignation as an MP in June 2008, he officially became the Conservative candidate in the resulting by-election and won it in July 2008.
In 2010, Davis was invited by Prime Minister David Cameron to join the cabinet of his coalition government, but he declined and stayed on the backbenches.
Grammar School boy
Davis was raised on Aboyne Estate, a council estate in Tooting, South West London. After attending Bec Grammar School in Tooting, London, he studied molecular science and computing at Warwick University, and then gained an MBA at the London Business School 1971-73. At Harvard he took the advanced business programme from 1984-85, and began a career with sugar refiners Tate & Lyle.[3]
Related Documents
Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Document:England prepares to leave the world | Article | 4 November 2016 | Neal Ascherson | "If you believe you are a citizen of the world you are a citizen of nowhere." Mrs May will pass into folklore with that line, just as Mrs Thatcher is remembered for "There is no such thing as society." |
Document:Project Brexit | Comment | 24 June 2017 | David | Project Brexit: "Doomed to Failure" |