Angela Browning

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Home Office portrait of Angela Browning, Baroness Browning, taken while she was minister of state for crime prevention and antisocial behaviour reduction in May 2011
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Baroness Angela Browning is Conservative peer in the House of Lords, joining in July 2010.[1]

She is the former MP for Tiverton and then Tiverton and Honiton.

Work

Pre Parliament

Before entering Parliament, Browning was a teacher, auxiliary nurse and a management consultant. She was also director of the Small Business Bureau (1985-1994), chair of Women into Business (1988-1992) and a member of the Department of Employment Advisory Committee for Women's Employment (1989-1992).[2]

MP

Browning was elected as the Conservative MP for Tiverton in 1992, winning 51.5 percent of the vote. After constituency changes in 1997 she was then elected as the MP for Tiverton and Honiton, winning 41.3 percent of the vote, she won 47.1 percent in 2001 and 47.9 percent in 2005.[3]

In 2006 she announced she would not be standing again at the 2010 General Election.[4]

Whilst in parliament she held the posts of parliamentary private secretary to Michael Forsyth as Minister of State, Department of Employment (1993-1994), parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1994-1997), shadow spokesperson Business, Innovation and Skills (1997-98), shadow secretary of state (1999-2000), shadow leader of the House of Commons (2000-2001), vice-chair of the Conservative Party (2001-2005) and deputy chair of the Conservative Party (2005-2007).[1]

Post Parliament

Browning was a member of the Electoral Commission until 2011.

She has worked at health sector consultancy Cumberlege Connections Ltd since 2012 - a firm set up by fellow Conservative peer Baroness Julia Cumberlege.

Since January 2015 she has been the chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, having previously been a member.[5]

Controversies

Expenses

In 2007 Browning claimed £9,365 expenses to pay Parliamentary Liaison Services Ltd, a political research company run by Mark Fullbrook - a former head of campaigns at Conservative Central Office, to set up a seven-page website. The website detailed the work Browning has undertaken in parliament and her constituency. It was claimed by Philip Sweny, a London website designer at Halpen Marketing that setting up a site like the one Browning had should cost no more than £1,250.

She also claimed nearly £7,300, including £1,000 to install two radiator covers, for soft furnishings and decorating her second home a London flat.[6]

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Parliament.UK Baroness Browning, accessed 10 March 2015
  2. Gov.UK Register of interests, accessed 25 March 2015
  3. Angela Browning Guardian, accessed 10 March 2015
  4. BBC News Tory deputy chairman to step down, 17 November 2006, accessed 10 March 2015
  5. Parliament.UK Interests and amendments, accessed 10 March 2015
  6. Patrick Sawer MPs' expenses: Tory claimed £10,000 for website Telegraph, 24 May 2009, accessed 20 March 2015