Michael Fallon
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Michael Cathel Fallon (born May 14, 1952, Scotland) is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Sevenoaks.
Michael Fallon, the son of an Irish surgeon, was educated at Craigflower School in Dunfermline; Epsom College and the University of St Andrews where he obtained a MA in classics and ancient history in 1974. After graduation he worked for the Conservative Party; as an assistant to Peter Carrington for three years from 1974 and also working in the House of Lords Whips Office. In 1977 he worked with the European Economic Community office within the Conservative Central Office. He became a personal assistant to Diana Elles, a Member of the European Parliament.
Following the death of Ted Fletcher, the Labour MP for Darlington on February 12, 1983, he was chosen to contest the seat for the Tories. Although he lost the 1983 Darlington by-election held on March 24, 1983 to Labour's Ossie O'Brien by some 2,412 votes, just 77 days later Fallon defeated O'Brien at Darlington by 3,438 votes and he remained the MP there until the 1992 General Election when he was ousted by Labour's Alan Milburn by a margin of 2,798 votes. He re-entered Parliament at the 1997 general election in the safe Conservative constituency of Sevenoaks following the retirement of the sitting Tory MP Mark Wolfson and has served as the MP there since.
In parliament Michael Fallon was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Energy Cecil Parkinson following the 1987 General Election, and in 1988 joined the government of Margaret Thatcher as an Assistant Whip, becoming a Lord Commissioner to the Treasury in 1990. He became the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education and Science later in 1990 under the new premiership of John Major, a position he held until his defeat at the 1992 General Election.
Following his re-election at the 1997 General Election he was briefly an Opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry, and when William Hague took over the leadership of the party he became a spokesman on the treasury although was dropped by Hague in 1998, and has remained on the backbenches since. Since 1999 he has been a member of the Treasury Select Committee.
He has been married to Wendy Elizabeth Payne since 1986 and they have two sons. During the period he was out of parliament he was a director for Quality Care Homes.
Publications
- The Quango Explosion: Public Bodies and Ministerial Patronage by Philip Holland and Michael Fallon, 1978, Conservative Political Centre ISBN 0850706211
- Sovereign Members by Michael Fallon, 1982
- The Rise of the Euroquango by Michael Fallon, 1982, Adam Smith Institute ISBN 0906517222
- Brighter Schools: Attracting Private Investment into State Schools by Michael Fallon, 1993, Social Market Foundation ISBN 1874097151