Jonathan Sayeed

Jonathan Sayeed (born 20 March 1948) is an Anglo-Indian British politician who was a Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2005.

He joined the Royal Navy in 1965, when he was 17.

He spent two years at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and then studied at the Royal Naval Engineering College, Manadon, for a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

He left the Navy in 1973, at the age of 24.

After leaving the Royal Navy, Sayeed joined Marks and Spencer PLC as a management trainee.

Since 1974 "he worked as a shipping and insurance consultant", and held directorships in various international companies:

Whilst he was MP for Mid Bedfordshire, Sayeed lived in Westminster, and also had a house in Houghton Conquest.

He was a member of the Reform Club and is a member of the Carlton Club.

He was elected MP for Bristol East at the 1983 general election, where he defeated Tony Benn.

The constituency was created for that general election, partly from the Bristol South East constituency, where Benn had been MP for much of the previous 32 years.

For the Conservatives, this was one of "the three great prizes" of the election, as Benn was said to be "the man they most love to hate".

Due to his election in 1983 he became the first MP of Indian or Asian descent elected since the 1920s, due to his father being Indian and was one of the first ethnic minority MPs elected in the 20th century.

Sayeed served on the select committees for Defence and the Environment; was chairman of the Shipping and Shipbuilding Committee; and deputy chairman of the All-Party Maritime Group.

At the 1987 general election, Sayeed more than doubled his majority.

In 1988, he secured an Urban Development Corporation for Bristol despite the opposition of the then Environment Secretary, Nicholas Ridley.

Sayeed started to climb the ministerial ladder in 1991, when he was appointed parliamentary private secretary to Lord Belstead as Paymaster General.

However, in 1992 his career took a step backward when he lost his seat to Labour at the general election.

In 1996, Sayeed sold his public affairs company, and was appointed chairman of the training division of Corporate Services Group plc.

In May 1997, he stood down as chairman after being elected Member of Parliament for Mid Bedfordshire.

He returned to Parliament as MP for Mid Bedfordshire at the 1997 general election, having defeated the incumbent MP, Sir Nicholas Lyell, the Attorney General, for the nomination, and held the seat until 2005.

Sayeed's offices at 28 Stafford Place were the headquarters for William Hague's successful bid to become Conservative leader in 1997.

Sayeed served on the Broadcasting Select Committee, and was appointed by the Speaker of the House of Commons to the Chairman's Panel.

This small group of senior MPs comprises chairmen of the Committees that debate legislation.

In the 1999-2000 session of Parliament, Lord Weatherill and Sayeed introduced a private member's bill which was passed into law.

This was the Census (Amendment) Bill.

Sayeed was chairman of European Standing Committee C, was joint-chairmen (together with Labour MP Bill O'Brien) of the Standing Committee on Regional Affairs.

Sayeed achieved his first frontbench post in 2001, when he was appointed shadow minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, working under the Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, Peter Ainsworth.

"Among his first roles has been to lead for the Conservatives on the Home Energy Conservation Bill, for which he declared his party's support strongly at Second Reading. In Committee he made plain that this support was entirely conditional upon the continued inclusion of firm targets in the final text."

The Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE) praised his efforts saying: "In a few months in post Mr Sayeed has proved himself to be a doughty fighter for strong policies backing energy conservation."

Sayeed continued as shadow minister after a reshuffle by the Conservative leader The Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith in July 2002.

Following the 11 September terrorist attacks against the United States, the UK Parliament was recalled, and a solemn five-hour emergency sitting of the House of Commons debated the crisis.

Jonathan Sayeed said that military might alone would not be enough to deal with the problem.

He was the only member of the Conservative front bench who consistently, openly and publicly opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

His interests include golf (Secretary, Lords and Commons Golfing Society 2004 and winner, 1998 and 1999, of the Parliamentary Handicap), sailing (Royal Naval Sailing Association and Royal Temple YC), tennis, skiing, classical music (Chairman of the Parliament Choir 2002–2003), books and architecture.

Sayeed was twice an unsuccessful candidate for the Greater London Council before entering Parliament at his first attempt.

Though he was reselected by the Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association to contest his seat in the House of Commons shortly before the 2005 general election, he was forced to retire owing to ill health.

He was criticised by the Committee on Standards and Privileges for being "at the least negligent, at the worst careless" in respect of a company in which he had an interest, but no evidence was found that he had directly received any improper payments.

In the investigation by Sir Thomas Legg into MPs' expenses, he was one of the minority of MPs who were completely cleared of any misuse of their second home allowances.

Jonathan Sayeed is the son of the late M M Sayeed, a chartered electrical engineer from India, and L S Sayeed.

Sayeed was educated at Woolverstone Hall School in Suffolk.