Mark Harper

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Mark James Harper (born February 26, 1970) British politician and accountant. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Forest of Dean.

Mark Harper was educated at the Headlands School in Swindon, Wiltshire, Swindon College, and Brasenose College, Oxford where he received a degree in philosophy, politics and economics. He began his career as an auditor with KPMG for four years from 1991 before qualifying as a chartered accountant and joining Intel Corporation Ltd as a senior financial analyst in 1995, becoming the finance manager in 1997, and operations manager from 2000 until he left Intel in 2002 to set up his own accountancy practice.

He became the treasurer of the Swindon Conservative Association in 1993 and from 1997 to the new Swindon South Conservative Association, becoming the vice chairman for a year in 1998. He contested the Gloucestershire seat of Forest of Dean at the 2001 General Election but was defeated by the sitting Labour MP Diana Organ by 2,049 votes. Organ retired at the 2005 General Election and Harper gained the seat for the Tories with a majority of 2,049 (oddly exactly the same number of votes by which he was defeated at the previous election),[link] and made his maiden speech on May 24, 2005 in which he concentrated on the education needs of his constituents with learning disabilities.[link]

In Parliament, he has served on the administration select committee since 2005 and later in the year he was promoted to the front bench by David Cameron as a spokesman on defence and Veterans. On May 15 2006, he hosted the first Conservative Party Veterans Summit, bringing together organisations from across the country to discuss the issues facing war veterans and established a platform from which to develop Conservative Party policy on the issue.

Harper has campaigned hard to protect local health services following announcements that local health trusts planned to close the local Sir Charles Dilke Memorial Hospital and replace the Lydney and District Hospital with a new centre.

He is married to Margaret and they have two labrador dogs and they live together in the constituency at Newham Bottom. He was a governor of Newent Community School from 2000 to 2005 and is a member of The Freedom Association.

External links

[Mark Harper MP] official site
[Mark Harper MP] biography at the site of the Conservative Party
[Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Mark Harper MP]
[TheyWorkForYou.com - Mark Harper MP]
[The Public Whip - Mark Harper MP] voting record

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