'Anne Caroline Ballingall McIntosh' (born
20 September 1954,
Edinburgh) is a politician in the
United Kingdom. She is
Conservative member of Parliament for
Vale of York, and was first elected in
1997. She had previously been an
MEP.
Born in Edinburgh, the daughter of a
Scottish doctor father and
Danish mother, Anne McIntosh was educated at the
Harrogate Ladies College in
North Yorkshire and at the
University of Edinburgh where she was a law graduate in
1977. She also studied at the
University of Aarhus in the
Jutland region of Denmark.
In
1978 she became a trainee at the
European Community (EEC), before joining Didier and Associates in
Brussels in
1979. She trained for the Scottish Bar from
1980, being admitted to the
Faculty of Advocates in
1982. She worked as an advocate with the Community Law Office in Brussels, before becoming a political advisor to the
European Democrats group in the
European Parliament in
1983.
McIntosh unsuccessfully contested the
1987 general election at
Wokingham where she was defeated by the sitting
Labour MP
Dale Campbell-Savours. She was elected for Essex North East at the
1989 European Parliament election and for its successor seat of Essex North and Suffolk South from the
1994 election. She remained a Member of the European Parliament until she stood down at the
1999 contest.
She was elected to the
House of Commons at the
1997 general election for the Vale of York which she won by a comfortable 9,721 majority and has held the seat easily since. She was promoted to the Opposition frontbench in
2001 as a spokesperson for
Culture, Media and Sport and has held a number of front bench positions since (
Transport (
2003-
2005),
Foreign Affairs (2005),
Work and Pensions (2005-
2007), and
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (since 2007)); though never at shadow cabinet level.
In boundary changes agreed in
2006, the Vale of York constituency was divided up leaving no obvious successor; the seat with the closest identity to it was
Thirsk and Malton which was the successor to
Ryedale, held since 1987 by
John Greenway. McIntosh was placed on the 'A-list' of Conservative parliamentary candidates ahead of the next general election
[1]. Unexpectedly on
18 November, 2006 the Thirsk and Malton Conservative Association chose McIntosh over Greenway as their candidate for the next general election.
Anne McIntosh is married to John Hervey, and they live in the constituency near to
Thirsk. She speaks six languages -
English,
Danish,
French,
German,
Spanish and
Italian.
External links
★
Anne McIntosh official site
★
Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Anne McIntosh MP
★
TheyWorkForYou.com - Anne McIntosh MP