Andrew Lansley

Andrew David Lansley, Baron Lansley, (born 11 December 1956) is a British Conservative politician who previously served as Secretary of State for Health and Leader of the House of Commons.

In 1977 while at Exeter University, Lansley was elected President of the Guild of Students (Student Union), as a Tory Reform Group candidate.

His father Thomas worked in a pathology laboratory, and became co-founder of the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine and President of the Institute of Medical Laboratory Scientists.

Before entering politics, Lansley had "a promising career in the civil service".

Lansley worked for Norman Tebbit for three years as his private secretary at the Department of Trade and Industry.

This encompassed the period of the IRA's 1984 Brighton hotel bombing at the Conservative Party Conference in which Tebbit was seriously injured.

Lansley and others have been praised by Tebbit for their support at that time.

Lansley went on to become more fully involved in politics.

In 1990, he was appointed to run the Conservative Research Department.

He ran the 1992 general election while at the Conservative Research Department and later was Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party at the 2001 general election.

He ran the Conservative campaign for the 1992 general election, which he describes as one of "his proudest career achievements" He suffered a minor stroke in 1992, initially misdiagnosed as an ear infection, but made a full recovery save for permanently losing his sense of "fine balance".

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for political service in the 1996 New Year Honours.

He was Member of Parliament (MP) for South Cambridgeshire from 1997 to 2015.

Lansley was born in Hornchurch, Essex and studied Politics at the University of Exeter.

He worked in the civil service before entering politics.

Lansley sought to enter parliament and was selected for the South Cambridgeshire seat where he was subsequently elected as an MP in 1997.

He immediately joined the House of Commons health select committee.

At the 2001 election, he again took on a strategy role as a Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party.

As part of his duties Shadow Ministers had to clear the timing of their announcements with Lansley.

He fitted them into a timetable known as the 'Stalingrid'.

The 2001 election was not a success for the Conservative Party and party leader, William Hague, resigned in its wake.

Iain Duncan Smith, the new leader, offered Lansley a position following election but he turned this down and, until Michael Howard became Leader, Lansley was a backbencher.

Lansley was the Shadow Secretary of State for Health from 2004 until 2010, the Secretary of State for Health from 2010 until 2012, and Leader of the House of Commons from 2012 until 2014.

In his post he developed policies centred on using choice to improve the National Health Service, and was author of a chapter in Dr Tempest's 2006 book The Future of the NHS.

Lansley was appointed a Privy Counsellor on 13 May 2010.

Following Howard's election as party leader, Lansley soon returned to the Conservative frontbench.

He served as the Shadow Secretary of State for Health.

After becoming Prime Minister in May 2010, David Cameron named Lansley as Health Secretary in the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government.

A tempestuous two years of proposed health reforms followed.

In November 2010, Lansley provoked controversy by factoring into public health related bills representations from fast food companies such as McDonald's, KFC and processed food and drink manufacturers PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Unilever, Mars and Diageo on obesity, diet-related disease and alcohol, said by campaign groups to be the equivalent of handing smoking policy over to the tobacco industry.

In January 2011, Ministers published the Health and Social Care Bill, detailing planned reforms that would pave the way for GP consortia to take over management of the NHS from primary care trusts.

Prime minister David Cameron said "fundamental changes" were needed in the NHS.

But doctors' leaders believed that GPs could simply have taken charge of PCTs instead, and achieved the same results.

As Health Secretary, Lansley was responsible for the government's controversial Health and Social Care Act 2012.

On 4 September 2012, Lansley was moved to the positions of Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons, which he retained until 14 July 2014.

He was then replaced by William Hague, following Hague's surprise resignation as Foreign Secretary, and retired from the Cabinet to the back benches, announcing the same day that he would not be seeking re-election to the House of Commons at the next election and would hope to find an international role.

He announced his intention to stand down as an MP in 2015, and was awarded a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.

Following his career in Westminster, Lansley advised corporate clients on healthcare reforms despite David Cameron’s pledge to close the “revolving door” between Whitehall and the private sector.

Born in Hornchurch, Essex, Lansley was educated at Brentwood School and the University of Exeter, gaining a BA in politics.

In the event, the election came on 7 May 2015, and until his appointment to the House of Lords in October Lansley was out of parliament.